Mixed Things Come In Threes
by Steathhunter4l
Summary: A telling of the Lone Wanderers tale accept with one slight change, it also includes the story of His near Identical Brother and sister, and the paths they go down to survive in the hellish wasteland. rated M for mature themes and content.
1. Chapter 1

"Wake up! Come on you two you have to WAKE UP! Things are falling apart!" Ben heard a female voice screaming as he tried to claw his way into alertness.

He recognized the voice as belonging to Amata and pushed himself out of his bed to see his sister doing the same.  
"Come on you have to wake up." she said slapping him and yelling at her sister, thankfully she was quite loud and thanks' to Joseph, quite strong and he was alert as soon as her hand made contact.

"What the hell do you want?" Elissa asked groggily, normally they all got on well but she needed her sleep."

"It's your Dad, he's left the vault." she said her voice faltering

"That's crazy the vault has been closed for 200 years !" Elissa said her voice becoming more serious with each word  
"I know, but you're dad he opened the door and escaped, my father found out that Jonas helped him and… god Officer Mack just would not stop hitting him." Amata said whimpering.

"Hey it's okay" he said pulling his Brother girlfriend close, looking over at his sister he saw her emptying her old School bag and stuffing it with jumpsuits and personal artifacts.

"What are you doing"? Ben asked looking at his sister."

"Packing, if Dad's out there in the wasteland then we have to find him." Elissa said putting her pocket knife into her bag and began packing Ben's bag too.

He took his old sword off the wall and locked it onto the bag, it was spotted with rust, but it held significance to him, plus if push came to show he did know how to handle it.

Amata pushed a 10mm Pistol into Elissa's bag saying "here, you will need it out there. She said her hands shaking.  
"Or if we run into any of your father's guards" Elissa said looking up.

"Joseph Is security as well, are you going to shoot up him as well?" Amata said staring at her.

"He's our brother, he's different, and where not killing anyone, where is he?"

* * *

The Baton hit him again in the side of the face, sending his head reeling into the back of the chair he was cuffed down too.

"Please just tell us why your father left, Officer Mack may enjoy this but I don't any more then you do The Overseer of the Vault said.

"I … Don't know Joseph spurted out blood dribbling down his lip, I didn't know he was trying too leave".

"Hit him again"

That horrible black metal collided with his head again and he and the chair fell over to the floor, blood spilled out his mouth.

This had been going on for more then an hour Officer Mack hitting him again, and he had to give the same answer, because it was the only one he had.

They had grabbed him on his way back from late night guard duty, they had struck him to the back of the head and dragged him back to the Vault security center and cuffed him to a chair.

His family had told him that this is how it would end if he joined the Vault Security team, that he would just become another disposable pawn to the Overseer, and because of his father and the Overseer's 'opposing views' he would not even like him, as now evidenced.

He had joined on for the steady pay and so he could get the training to protect his family from Butch and his thugs, he knew how to box, very basic bits of other martial arts and scored very highly on the range, it had been a long time since anyone had picked a fight with him, partially because of his reputation.

He was one of the three living Vault security members that had taken a life, the others being Security chief Hannon and Officer Mack.

The women was deranged and attacked him with a pipe whilst he was on patrol around the night, the struggle had been brief and ugly, and ended with two holes in her head right in the middle of her temple.

That earned him the nick name "Lady Killer" from anyone callous enough to call him that, that was Butch, his sister and pretty much everyone else on the security team.

Not even his father had been sympathetic to horrified by his son's terrible actions, the only one who had been willing to listen to how he felt about how much it used to tear him up was his little brother.

The Baton brought him back to reality for a moment before he faded to blackness again.

From the corner of his brain he heard the sooth sound of a Vault door opening, and then yelling, after what he thought was a few minutes or maybe a few days of that yelling, he felt his body being pulled away from the chair.

Then there was a sound that split his head in half, a gun shot, followed by another one, then a swack and bump of two body's hitting the floor, and then he felt himself being dragged away.

Then another sound he could not misplace "What have you done ?!" Amata's voice rang out

then he heard his Brothers voice, "It's just a leg wound, we had to shut him up." He heard before he felt himself being put against a wall.

He opened his eyes a bit and saw the Overseer's office, and his desk rising up into the air revealing a concealed passage way.

He floated out of conciseness and woke up again to the sounds of alarms blaring, his instincts took over and he shook out of his brother and sisters grip and pulled himself up by a guard rail.

The Vault door was open, he could see a long cavern going up too a rickety wooden door, he heard foot steps behind him, "oh my god, you opened it!" Amata said pointing at the door.

"Amata, I'm sorry we have to leave." Supporting Joseph with his shoulder.

Amata stared into Joseph's eyes, "you're leaving ?" she said sounding like she was worn out, emotionally.

"I'm so sorry Amata, we have to go." Joseph said taking her hand.

"We wont ever see each other again." she said squeezing his hand.

"No" he said tenderly, his brother and sister walked to the vault door

"I Love you" she said  
"I Love you too" he said pulling her closer to him with what little strength he had left.

His lips met hers in one final desperate kiss, he heard a creaking as a metal pressure door opened up behind her and the voice of Security Chief Hannon yell "Stop in the name of the Overseer !"

He broke away and ran for the Vault door, he made it through the huge gap with his brothers help.

They Ran up the cavern floor and he head a colossal grinding sound that split his head in half.

they turned around to see that the Vault door had shut, Permanently, he walked back to the huge door, he ran his head along the Cold steel, and slumped against the wall, not even noticing the ancient skeletons grouped around the door holding signs, Ben sat down next to placing a bag down, Elissa sat down on his other side, he put his arms around the two of them closing his eyes.

* * *

Soo what do you think? if you don't know this is a spinoff from another story i have up on a different acount that i share with a very dear freind, do a little searching and im sure you can find it.  
And if you read the other story then im sorry for the delay but i had to get this idea out my skull, and if you have read this far then youre a badass  
Take care you guys


	2. Chapter 2

_So yay I finally added to my other story, hope you liked it, anyway I wrote more for this in school, and typed it up today, not sure how this is coming along I always feel like I doing badly the first few chapters._

* * *

Joseph woke up relatively warm but uncomfortable. He opened his eyes and took in the corridor like cavern he found himself in.  
He winced as he realised how much his head hurt, he became more aware of his body, he was lying on the small concrete terrace just outside the grand Vault door.  
He felt his sister's head that had fallen down during the night, she had been leaning on him and he had lent on Ben, who was against the rock wall.  
Where's Ben? The question arced through him like a Lance and he sat up heedless of his body's complaints. His pack was still here and he would never leave it behind.  
He heard scuttling ahead of him and looked up to see Ben running for him, his dirty steel hair swaying with his motion.  
"Come on", Ben said, You have got to see this shit!" he pointed at the rickety wooden door leading to the outside world, he marveled at that, only a door between him and the world, all the things he had heard about, the ocean, the sky, huge landscapes a million times bigger than the vault, things that he had been reduced to myth in the Vault residents.  
"Hold on a sec," Joseph said almost breathless, he was still wearing the Black vests that was capable of stopping small arms fire. "Do we have any weapons other than that." he said pointing at Ben's bag and what looked to be a stolen 10mm pistol attached to his belt.  
Ben nodded and opened a larger orange rucksack pulling out an ASP Baton and Joseph's personal Magnum revolver.  
Joseph strapped the baton to his belt and checked the Magnum, it was polished, loaded, and the safety was on.  
Just as it was when he was abducted by Officer Mack on the Overseers orders.  
Joseph looked in the bag and saw that there were two extra 10mm pistols not including the one Elissa was still holding, three more security vests and batons, two combat knives with serrated edges in standard metal sheathes so they did not cut up the bag, and a shit ton of ammo for all the guns they had.  
"Where did you get all of this." Noting the fact that Ben was also wearing a Black vest.  
When we rescued you from that beating we took Officer Mack's gear, then we helped ourselves to some of the security centers armoury," Ben said "So that plus the pistol Amata stole from her father we have a small arsenal. He said.  
The fire returned to his eyes and Ben gestured again at the only source of light in the cavern, he flicked on his PIP-boy's light noting that it was early morning.  
He followed his brother out of the cavern.  
His brother put his hand on the door, he turned to his brother, "brace yourself, it's… brighter then damned bright." he said as he pulled the door open Joseph was blinded by the bright, bright light.  
He felt that light bring down on him as the door was opened and his brother pulled him outside, almost searing his skin, the Vault lights were bright when turned on, but never like this, so bright that it seemed to consume everything around him.  
He tried to open his eyes but he had to lower his head from the intensity.  
he put his hands over his brows, he felt his eyes adjusting, he began too see around him, around him there seemed to be an endless stretch of rocky terrace. He saw ruined versions of the buildings Mr Brock had shown them in history class, what must once have been shining cars and white fences were now all so much burnt out wood and scrap metal.

Ben supported him over to a rock ledge marked 'scenic overview' and he took in more of the world around him, everything from the nearby suburb _(Springvale!_ he remembered) to the endless horizon that seemed a world away, that suburb and the space between them could pack in the entire vault into what was a proportionately small space.  
It was terrifying.  
he took a step back, "This is amazing." he said simply.  
"I know, and I'm going to see more of it." Ben said looking at this whole new world with wonder in his eyes.  
That broke Joseph out of his trance, "What?" he asked turning to face his brother.  
"Lets wake up sis." He said "And find some food." he smiled at his brother.

They woke up Elissa, and once they had gotten past her reaction to their bright new world, they agreed that they could all use a decent meal, they set of scooting down the rock hill down onto a ruined road, and began searching the ruined houses together, Ben going in first old sword in hand.  
they picked the first street dry finding a few things, a small crate of medical supply's and medicine and a old closet full of alcohol that they decided to leave in place, and a safe that after Elissa picked the lock on yielded a few bullets, a silenced 9mm pistol that Elissa claimed and quite the collection of pills.  
No food however.  
As they looked around more they saw a shack, _it looked recently built_. That meant that inside there or somewhere around here were people.  
They all approached the shack almost on autopilot, but as they got closer Elissa pulled the back drawing her gun.  
"What is it?" Ben asked looking around confused  
"Well if there are people in there, its possible that they would not be friendly, and preparing for that, we should have a plan." Elissa said looking both of them in the eye in turn.  
Joseph was the first to agree, "Alright, you too go around to the back door and be prepared in case you hear commotion, I'll knock on the front door, and then enter." He said looking around trying to fake confidence.  
It worked, they nodded and Ben took point at the back door sword in hand, in the short space of the shack it would be far more useful than a gun.  
They heard the knock.

Joseph opened the door as a female in grungy clothing turned the corner, keeping her hand near a small caliber gun at her side.

"Who the hell are you !" she exclaimed shacking violently, Joseph smelled the smoke, she was high.  
"Whoa, I don't mean you any trouble" he said raising his arm.  
"that's what they all say." She said angrily her face contorting in rage as she drew her gun.  
She raised the 32. Pistol cocking it as she bought it on level.  
Before she could fire he grabbed her hand and twisted her wrist making her drop the pistol as a long blade went through her back killing her.

On the other side of it was Ben holding the handle and the blade that was attached piercing the women's heart with a look Joseph had never seen before on the young cocky mans face, it was a look of shock, shock and horror.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben let go of the handle of the blood coated steel letting it be pushed out of the dead silver haired Woman's body as she hit the tiles.  
He fell backwards as his sister caught him into her arms as Joseph, thinking fast, dragged the still warm body out the back door trailing blood across the tiles and onto the sandy terrain outside.  
Ben put his hands around his head as started shacking staring at that ocean of red that leaked through the crevices between the tiles towards him,  
Joseph called out his Elissa's name after a few minutes, she let go of her brother slowly and walked out the back door careful where she let her feet fall.  
"What is it." She said looking at the body Joseph had just dragged out of sight.  
"This is low, I'm aware." He said taking a packet of cigarettes from the corpses pocket and handed them to her. "But if she had set up stock here then it's probable she had more supplies." Joseph said looking Elissa in the eye.  
"Agreed." She said "you go inside and tend to Ben, he needs you, I'll see if she had anything useful on her." Elissa said looking down at the corpse.  
"Thankyou." He said clenching his fist and turning into the small wooden shack.  
When he walked through the open door, he saw his brother shaking in place, he had pulled the blade out of the pool and was staring at it like it held answers.  
He sat down and put his arm around him as they leant back against the wall.

"Ben, she's dead." Joseph said  
"You disarmed her before I killed her." He said his hands shacking.  
"Yeah Joseph sighed "I won't lie, I probably could have taken her down without killing her." He said

"So that." Ben said pointing at the puddle, "and this." He said raising the hilt slightly "didn't have to happen." He said  
"No." Joseph said "But it did" he said turning to face his brother. "This does not change us, don't let it change you." Joseph said, "You thought I was in danger, and you acted, I hope I would be capable of the same." He continued taking his brothers hand.  
"You killed that women in the vault." He said, "You know what I'm feeling. His brother said squeezing his hand.  
Joseph nodded, "And I survived, you will too, I saw blood on one of the vests in that bag, Elissa killed Office Mack didn't she?" he asked

After a pause, Ben nodded,

"We have all killed Ben, and the chances are that were going to have to do it again, too survive." Joseph said. "You're my brother, and I Love you, nothing we do or say will break that." Joseph finished rising to his feet.  
He looked around the back room searching for anything useful, refusing to meet his brothers eye.  
It appeared that this was where she slept, finding more alcohol, cigarettes, narcotics and some ammo for the 32. Pistol the women had been holding.  
Elissa walked back inside the shack, she nodded to joseph and knelt beside Ben. He handed him some bullets, "can you put those away for me ?" his sister asked gently  
Ben nodded in response, his hands were shacking less now.  
She turned around and stepped towards her brother who was already organising the Junkies stuff into very well ordered and categorised rows.  
"Can you search the front room he said finding some canned food in a cupboard.  
she nodded and stepped into the front room.  
Ben packed away the new gun and ammo, Joseph was right about everything, but it wasn't helping, only s few hours ago he had been so excited about this new world, was this what it really is like ?  
Ben struggling up on shaky legs walked over too Joseph and started sorting out the 'Pharmaceuticals'. Joseph smiled at him, "Perks of being Daddy's Boy eh he said patting his shoulder.  
Joseph took a rag and threw it down on the ground over the blood.  
After another hour they had sorted all the supply's and discovered a large amount of supply's inside of a fridge that amazingly had power.  
A brief discussion later they agreed they should explore the area more before they set down here.  
Ben and Elissa ran the Alcohol they had found that same morning on Joseph's suggestion although they each wanted it for different reasons.

Whilst they did that Joseph dragged the corpse of the woman (they had nicknamed her silver) further away where they would not have to acknowledge it ever again.  
He came upon a dirt mound, finding a shovel, he coated the body completely in three feet of dirt, he tied some broken fence pilings together to make a cross which he put over the dirt.  
He had never been much of a believer, but she might well have been, it seemed like the right thing to do.  
He walked into the shack to find Elissa and Ben putting away the alcohol along with the rest of it, his sister walked into the back room, they saw the shovel and dirt on his hands and the shovel and drew their own conclusions.  
Ben sat down at a table with space just enough for the three of the to sit comfortably, his brother and sister joining him, Elissa set down two bottles of stilled beer and cold cloudy water.  
They all toasted 'Silver' before they started drinking.  
it was another few hours before they were ready to set back out.  
As they began to get up, Ben noticed something up with Josephs PIP boy. There was a yellow warning light, right next to the Geiger counter.  
When they checked the zero to a thousand rad measurement system, Joseph's counter had gone up along with Ben's.  
"Holy shit" was the unanimous reaction.  
"That water" Ben said looking at the empty bottles.  
"yeah." Joseph said looking at each of them.  
"Do you feel okay?" Elissa asked looking concerned.  
"yeah." Joseph said looking at his hands.  
"Joseph this is bad, you could get cancer." Ben said looking at him seriously

"Ben, I know you're the smart one in the family, mechanics and medicine, but were in this outside world now. Do you really think it will be cancer that kills me ? Joseph said holstering his Magnum and walking out the door. 


	4. Chapter 4

Ben and Elissa followed Joseph outside the shack into the warm afternoon.  
"Do you think there is anything we could have missed on that side? Ben asked who pointed towards the side of Springvale they had come from.  
"It's possible." Elissa said "Should we split up? Cover more ground?" She asked

"Yeah, make a full search of that side and mark the buildings you clear with rocks, keep an eye out we've got no idea what else is out here." Joseph said  
Elissa and Ben nodded. "Right, two houses each?"  
They all agreed walking towards the street, as he was walking Joseph noted a sign that said 'Megaton', it looked very recent. He thought to mention it but he put it out of his mind for later after they were done.  
It was early afternoon by the time they had dug out anything worth wile, which included food, proper sterilized medical supplies, another shovel, and some clothes that they decided would best be used as rags, and a heavy paper-back book on Hand to Hand combat.  
That was the Vault side of the town completely cleared.

They all walked together to underneath a large red Sci Fi rocket that probably used to advertise something which provided shade to a convenient park bench.  
They all showed off what they had found and Ben won with the medical supplies, but that wasn't the end of his finds.  
"Is that a Nuka cola machine?" walking over to a vending machine.  
"Yeah, but it's either empty or busted by now." Joseph said  
"Well its either the button works" he tested it, the machine groaned violently, "or this!" he said and kicked the machine, when that didn't work he jammed his baton into a slot and twisted violently.  
They laughed, they stopped laughing when the machine spurted out bottles of 200 year old, flat and warm Nuka cola.  
Then they both started congratulating him and calling him a genius, they took their supplies back to the shack, and managed to have a good time for the rest of the day upon finding a pack of guards.

When night came they gave Elissa the proper cot whilst they both slept on the floor, using their packs as pillows, at least the floor they were on was made of carpet.  
When they woke up in the morning they decided to search the other side of Springvale which was hidden behind a ridge.  
After a decent breakfast they set out vests on and weapons at the ready over the ridge. As they crossed over it became apparent there was not another group of streets like they had searched on the other side, but rather what appeared to be a single building Elementary school.  
"Damn." Ben said simply.  
"Do we search it?" Elissa asked looking at the others then to the building.  
"I don't know, if there was one person inside our shack before, it's likely there's someone camping out in there, maybe multiple people." Joseph said mulling it over  
"More stuff for the taking." Elissa said seriously  
"were not bandits." Joseph said coldly

"You're the one who said it's survival of the fittest out here." She responded anger coming into her voice.  
"That's not what I meant, I meant that we do what we have too, not attack other people trying to survive." Joseph said returning the emotion  
"I'll do whatever I have to too keep us-"  
"I Saw a sign pointing the other way yesterday, looked like directions, we should check that out." Ben said trying to mediate.  
Elissa glared at Joseph, "we'll revisit this later then." She said imitating Joseph.  
Joseph nodded, "We will." He said firmly

They set off in the other direction back towards the sign, as they walked Elissa and Joseph kept exchanging glares. '_They'll get over it_' he thought, he hoped.  
When they reached the sign, they saw that it pointed west. 'Megaton'

They walked up the way the sign pointed and went up another small ridge. When they reached the top they all saw it at once.  
At first it seemed to be just a giant mass of scrap metal, but when they looked at it closely, they saw that there was structure that metal made up a wall, there appeared to be main gate shielded by a blast door with a small airplane turbine used to power its opening.

There was a strange Robot out in front of it, Ben was the first to realize what it was, the chief engineer Stanley had ambitions he had shared to build this kind of machine, a 'Protectron', it had abilities to shoot red lasers with the same force of a laser pistol, he informed the others of this and there was an unspoken consensus not to screw with it.  
Joseph looked up and saw that there was a shooting platform, currently occupied by a man in combat armour who had a rifle leveled at them, it took a second for that to sink in.

"All of you raise your hands slowly, I'd rather not waste the bullets killing you." he called out in a strong commanding voice.  
"Okay." Joseph said as they all complied.  
"We don't mean you any harm." Ben called out  
"Then we might just have a mutual, who are you?" The man asked  
"We're from a nearby Vault, we were just exploring the area and saw the sign." Joseph said  
"Would you quit being so nice? He has a gun on us." Elissa whispered

"Alright, Sheriff is coming up, don't move." The man said.

They all stood there for the longest thirty seconds in any of their lives as the engine whirled and the blast door slid upwards, and a man in a Duster and wide brimmed hat waked out with a Chinese Assault rifle.  
"Howdy, names Lucas Simms, Town Sheriff, and mayor too when the need arises, Stockholm tells me you want to enter Megaton." The man said in a deep voice as he stepped closer.  
"Yeah, yeah I think we would, do we have to surrender our weapons? Joseph asked being as polite as he possibly could to the grizzled man.  
He smiled, "No that wont be necessary, I trust my gut and it's telling me you're good people, so Welcome to Megaton, just don't cause any trouble, otherwise we will be putting you back out into the cold, or in the ground." Lucas said shouldering his rifle  
"Right, Message received." Ben said speaking up offering the man his hand.

They all shook and went through the big metal gate into the town.  
it was halfway through seeing that the town was built around the huge crater left by an undetonated atomic bomb in the center of town that Joseph, Ben and Elissa all collectively realized the same thing.  
There had to be some very, very desperate people in this new world.

* * *

sorry if this was a little disappointing, i really wanted to get the group into megaton, but im not sure how things will go down in there, ive got an idea but not layered properly it scene for scene  
anyway i want any criticism you have got, i feel like every sentence im making a mistake  
Take care


	5. Chapter 5

"Like I said before, were happy to have you inside the walls until nightfall, then you have got to leave till dawn." Lucas said with authority.  
"Why do we have to leave at night?" Elissa asked barley keeping an edge out of her voice, apparently the Lookout threatening to kill the three of them had her a little disgruntled  
"Because we don't know anything about you, who you could be working for, say, why are you Vaulties out here to begin with? We aint seen you're kind in something like thirty years.

"We're looking for our father, he left too and we don't know where he could have gone, you haven't seen him? Wears a Vault suit, tall, middle-aged-"  
"Boy, I'm sorry but we have got too many of our own fires too put out without worrying about others peoples, any other questions?

"I've got one, why would anyone build a town around a bomb, that's crazy!" Ben said jabbing his thumb at the bomb.

"We'll when it fell it left this big crater, People took shelter here from sandstorms, caravans started too meet here, some of them set up shop, people formed around them, eventually permanent buildings and walls were built. Humanity's stubborn like that." Lucas said

"Would it be alright if I took a look at it? Ben said openly "I used to do this sort of thing in the Vault, I just want to make sure it's safe." He said wringing his hands

"Oh, alright." Lucas said raising his eyebrows. "Just don't go tinkering with it without telling me alright?"

"Okay then." Ben said shacking hands as the three turned walking down to the bomb, gawking at the people, they were all wearing rugged clothes that would be easy to move in and all of them carried weapons.

When they got down Ben got quickly to work whilst they sat down at a small bar in front of a large building built below a large catwalk which was host to what appeared to be private metal houses.

It was a few hours later when Ben walked back over to Joseph, looking up from a kebab that the restaurant owner identified as 'Crispy Squirrel bit', and had promised it would be tasty, she hadn't lied, but it was his first time eating meat and it was very different to chew.  
"You okay?" Joseph asked when he saw the worried look on his face.

"The bomb is live, safe for now but all it would take is a little push and it would wipe everything for… well it would destroy a hell of a lot." Ben finished lately.

Joseph stopped halfway through taking another bite, then finished the kebab and stabbed the stick into the ground, walking back up the hill to the only gate out of Megaton with the Sheriffs office being a stones throw away from the gate.

"Where are you going? And where's Elissa"? Ben asked keeping up with his brother.

"To the Sheriff, he deserves to know. And Elissa went up to the bar." Joseph said stopping suddenly. "Do you think you could do something about the bomb?" he asked

"What do you mean?" Ben responded

"Well, we need ever advantage we can out here, and if we disarmed the bomb, this town would owe us big time, plus it's the right thing to do." Joseph said turning and looking at his brother curiously

His brother gazed at him blankly for a moment, then responded "of course I could, given I had the right tools, which even out here should be relatively easy.

"Wait really?" Joseph asked

"There's a reason why I didn't go into security with you, I'm a certifiable Genius." Ben said braggingly

Joseph smiled and knocked on the Sheriffs door. A few minutes later Lucas opened the door in the same dirty duster with a polished silver star shaped badge on his chest.

"Yeah?" He asked

"I talk a look at the bomb, it's still armed" Ben said bluntly

It was a few seconds before that sunk in to the sheriff, "It could go off at any time?" he asked dumbstruck.

"No, its stable for the moment, but all it would take is the slightest bit of encouragement and everything you care about, gone." Motioning his hand for effect.

He had the same reaction as Joseph, "Can you, can you do anything? Put it out for good?"

"Maybe, if you could give me the fairly basic tools I need, then I should be able to disable it whenever you want me too." Ben said

"Alright, alright, we still can't keep you inside for the night but if you manage to kill it, we may be able to make you three permanent residents. Lucas said looking the both of them in the eye.

Ben and Joseph were taken back at first, Joseph recovered first, "alright, we'll collect our sister and come back tomorrow morning, and he can do what he has got to do then. He said

Lucas nodded, muttered something before walking back inside his office.

True to their word they found Elissa back in front of the 'Brass Lantern' slightly buzzed now.  
They exited quickly making back to the shack just as night fully set out.

It was a cold night and they ended up using their spare Vault suites as blankets, waking early morning. They decided to wait till 9 before they approached town, preferring to not have their heads blown out by an overly cautious lookout, Elissa elected to

When they arrived they were greeted at the gate by Lucas Simms, who briefed them that he would be with them whilst Ben tinkered away, and introduced them to his son 'Harden Simms ' who would fetch tools for Ben.

After another few hours in which Lucas and Joseph made nice whilst Ben clanked and cursed, it was a while later that he pulled out a collection of bolts, fuses and a collection of nasty looking devices.

Lucas whistled when he saw it all.

"Would you like an explanation of any of this." Ben said smiling at it when he put it all down on the table.

"No, one question though, is that thing still dangerous?" Lucas asked grinning

"No, tear it apart for spare parts, shoot it and nothing will happen." Ben said

"You sure?"

Joseph spoke up, "Sir, this is the guy who used to keep a jar to keep money in for when we proved him wrong, after 16 years that jar is still intact." Joseph said eating more kebab, he actually kind of liked them now.

"Well then, come with me." Lucas said leading them up across a small side path off the main one up the hill to the catwalk Joseph had noticed above the brass lantern.

He took them to a large house to the immediate left of the entrance of the catwalk, opening the door he told them that this house could be their payment along with full residency in the town if they would take it.

"Should we ask Elissa before we decide?" Ben asked

"You kidding? There's nothing to ask Joseph said turning around to face the Sheriff, "we'll take it he." Said "Do we have to sign anything?"

"No, I better get back to stopping this town from tearing itself apart." Lucas said.

He handed Joseph the keys and walked out the door whistling.

Ben turned to his brother and asked "Do we go fetch Elissa?"

"Yeah, start bringing our supplies over here." Ben said

"And then?"

"Well I imagine we should start settling in, introduce ourselves around here, maybe you could find work at the clinic?" Joseph said

"What about dad?" Ben asked raising an eyebrow

"That's up to me and Elissa." Joseph said

"You can't keep protecting me!" Ben said suddenly angry storming out the new home.

* * *

_Sorry if the last few chapters haven't been too interesting, i just needed to establish them obtaining a safe place to call home and i felt it would be too long a chapter if i tried to squeeze anything else in, thankyou to anyone reading this and special thanks to Shadow Han Helsing, ray-kun and Jonathan Is Epic for the reveiws, i tried to space the paragraphs out, i hadent looked at the stories in posted form so i tried to fix that this chapter_

keep on kicking ass you guys


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It was a few hours and well and truly nightfall by the time they had moved all their supply's inside their new home, they were all very happy with themselves especially when they discovered a hidden wall safe filled with hundreds of bottle caps inside of it, the newly discovered currency of the Capital Wasteland, it turned out the woman who sold Joseph food the day before had used the paper money he had given her as kindling.

All was not well however as that night they discussed over dinner what to do about their missing father.

"We have to find him" Ben said opening the conversation

"We will" Elissa said in between chews. "I Reckon tomorrow we go asking around town, see what that turns out." She said as Joseph nodded.

"And what if we find out that he's days away from us? What then?" Ben said looking around the table.

"We go get him, make him explain what the hell he was planning." Joseph said picking at the pork and beans.

"You think we can handle that?" Ben said "I'm not saying we can't, I'm saying we should plan things out." He said

"No." Elissa said looking up. "Joseph and I could handle it if we were together, I don't think you would make it." She said plainly.

There was a moment of silence.

"What?" Ben asked barley containing himself.

Joseph said nothing watching the situation unfold.

"You heard me, if we go outside and far away from these walls, there will be people a lot of people worse the us, and when we deal with these people, it will be kill or be killed, you don't have that." She said looking her brother straight in the eye.

"How dare you." Ben said shacking with rage, "Just because I couldn't kill a random woman and feel nothing about it like you two, I'm weak!?"

"It's not that you're weak, it's that you're not strong enough, for this world." Elissa said rising from the table and going up the stairs to the small room she had converted into her room from the storage it had been.

Ben glared at her as she left, "Do you agree with that!" he yelled at Joseph, thankfully the sound did not escape the thick full metal walls.

"I don't agree with her, I don't disagree either." Joseph said also rising from the table and going up too the room he and Joseph now shared.

Ben glared at him too.

Come morning Joseph woke warm and comfortable. He woke Elissa and as they both walked downstairs trying to wake themselves.

It was a few minutes after their brains started functioning properly that they realised what was wrong.

"Where the fuck is Ben?" Elissa asked.

Joseph's ears perked up and he looked around as though Ben would just appear from behind a locker cocky-grin already in place.

Elissa walked over to the metal container they had established as the 'weapons locker' to see if anything was missing as Joseph laced up his boots.

"Oh Shit!" Elissa said standing turning around, "He's gone, one of the 10 mm pistols and a knife are missing!" she yelled.

"You don't think…. What you said last night…." Joseph said trailing off

"Yeah." Elissa said "Shit!" she said shaking her head

Joseph walked to the locker and armed up taking the silenced 9mm along with his baton and magnum, before walking quickly out the door.

Elissa followed after Joseph already armed.

"If he left Megaton he would have had to go through the gate, whoevers on watch would have seen him leave" Joseph said mounting the grey hill to the gate.

Stockholm as the man on watch was called told them that he had in fact seen a tall man in a Vault suit heading in the direction of Springvale, not wasting a second they ran for the burnt out suburb franticly searching the burnt out houses.

When Joseph turned out nothing in the two streets he jogged to the shack they had been hold up in, no sign there either.

As Joseph barged open the door right into Elissa sprawling them both over to the ground.

"Watch it." She said helping him up "I think I've found tracks."

Joseph followed her and true to her word she led him to a set of heavy tracks, leading so obviously to the front of 'Springvale School' it almost seemed deliberate.

"You think this is him?" Joseph said gesturing at the tracks.

"Yeah, lets move quietly to that wall." She said gesturing at the closest wall to the right of the main entrance, "Then we split up and both move along our own side of the building, there seems to be part of the wall blown out there, you go along that way and if anything goes down ill be able to back you up from behind, and vice versa." Elissa said pointing with a stick at whenever she referenced the architecture.

They agreed and began creeping towards the building, they made it to the wall which was scattered with large pieces of concrete from where the building that had been damaged over the years, he hugged the walls along his way as closely as he could as he made his way every muscle in his body tensing as he walked past the wooden double door.

It was the familiar sound of a Vault made pistol going off, and swearing followed by deafening assault rifle and shotgun fire that let him know that Ben was here. Joseph ran around the corner to see Ben taking cover behind the wall of what must have once have been an underground floor but was now joined with the first floor thanks to damage over years being occupied by raiders.

Shooting at him were two men in what might have been leather, but he rest of it was spikes and cut up tyres to make armour, one of them had severed hands attached to his waist, the one with the rifle was elevated a story higher than the ground firing down on Ben whilst the other with the combat shotgun was advancing slowly covering whenever his buddy had to reload.

Joseph took cover behind the nearby wall he could see it all unfolding through a large hole in the front wall as the guy with the shotgun got closer to his brother, he could take him out through the hole but then the rifle man would kill him in the next second. That was the choice, his life or his brothers, that sadist would come around the corner in only a few seconds.

Joseph checked his revolver and prepared to kill the man approaching Ben. Two seconds.

He stood up aiming intently at the man's head, the break in fire made it apparent that the man up top had spotted him, the shotgun poked around the corner, he wouldn't be able to make the shot in time, he and his brother were both about to-

Joseph's thoughts were interrupted by a 10mm going off three times in quick succession, the shotgun dropped and the man fell with it, Joseph ducked back down as the bullets thudded into the brick wall, regaining his composure Joseph snuck along the wall around the corner where there was a large hole in the wall where he was safe from fire, unfortunately the same was true for the raider who had taken cover behind part of a wall that extended all the way along the wall, despite It not having any support.

He moved up to a wall with a chalkboard built into it adorned with spray-paint, he aimed right where the raider would pop out too shoot, if he did then both he and Ben would have instant sight lines on him. They both waited there with endless patience for the man to move out of cover, when he did a 44. Round caught him and the stomach and when he fell to all fours wheezing a 10mm hit him in the head causing his head to rock backwards and he fell down to the ground floor.

Joseph and Ben seemed to look at each other both at the same moment, Ben looked around the corner checking for raiders, finding none Joseph crept over to him.

"Not hard enough?" Ben asked raising his eyebrow

Joseph laughed and both of the sensed it, all was forgiven.

Ben explained what had happened before Joseph had arrived, during that very brief conversation Joseph noticed something, the man who had the shotgun only had one bullet wound.

"How many shots did you put into that guy?" Joseph asked gesturing at the corpse.

"One" Ben said looking confused "Didn't you fire the other two at the same time?"

"No, Elissa was with me you don't think she got into trouble too? He asked

Just then there was scuttling behind Joseph and Elissa came around the corner blood streaked across her face and Vault suit.

"What did I miss?" she asked gun in hand as she looked at the scene around them


	7. Chapter 7

It was a few minutes before Joseph, Ben and Elissa were running from the school building newly claimed weapons and loot from the dead raiders carried and stuffed into pockets if it were small enough, they made it into the main street of Springvale without being hit and got into megaton with only a few scrapes and bruises.

When they made it back to the Large Megaton house it was only a few seconds before they had dropped their loot onto the floor before falling down, exhausted, after a few words and Elissa agreeing to make some proper breakfast and Ben went up too 'Craterside Supply' to trade some of the narcotics and alcohol they had found which they had no interest in for some more useful gear in case they did need to go far outside the walls, whilst Joseph went around town, asking anyone he met, wether or not they had seen their father, all leads pointed for the bar so that was where Joseph headed, when he walked along the high catwalk on the opposite side of Megaton he bumped into a large older man with a buzzed head and ugly brown goatee.  
"Sorry" Joseph said

"Asshole" he heard behind him

Joseph turned back around and was about to say something back to the grizzled man but thought better of it realising he was wearing very protective makeshift leather armour and had a powerful Chinese assault rifle.

'Local tough' he thought as he opened the door to the bar.

Joseph looked around the saloon, it was noon so barley anyone was inside the bar, from one side to another there were individual metal tables away from the main bar, there appeared to be a side room with rather nice furniture and a man in a pre-war brimmed hat and an amazingly clean white pin stripped suit who seemed to tense when Joseph entered the saloon, but it was not that clean cut man that drew his attention, nor was it the attractive red head strutting around in loose clothing who talked to an Irishman behind the bar.

It was the man, if he could be called a man, behind the bar. He was wearing a grey dirty t-shirt and baggy brown cargo pants, but that was not what made the man so horrifying, it was the fact that all the man's visible skin was horrifically burnt, his hair hung in clumps and Joseph could see some of his bare muscles beneath all that burnt and decrepit skin.

"Hey smoothskin." The almost zombie looking man said "Get you anything" he asked

Joseph opened his mouth up and down but no sound came out.

The man raised an eyebrow, or would have if he had any, "What never seen a Ghoul before?"

Joseph shook his head "What happened too you?" he asked croakily

"Well not all of us were lucky enough to hole up in a nice cushy vault, the rest of us got a full blast of heat and radiation, melted my skin off, and with a face like ground Brahmin meat Smooth skin's like you don't take to kindly too us." Gob Finished bitterly

"I've nothing against you buddy, it would bloody stupid of me to hate you because you look like shit's shit." Joseph said smiling and offering his hand.

Gob took it with his papery like skin and said "Well that's a relief, I'm used to every asshole Smoothskin in this town giving me shit just because I look like a corpse, look Moriarty would kill me if he knew I was giving you a discount but I'll risk it for you". Gob said flexing his face muscles into what could have been a smile.

Joseph smiled back and looked over to the man in the suit, he gestured for Joseph to sit down with him in that luxury room, Joseph approached sitting down in the comfortable leather chair.

"Good afternoon, I am Mr Burke" the man said with a powerful edge in his voice.

* * *

Ben had finished buying their supply's from Moira Brown the owner of 'Craterside supply', he decided to head to the bar, it was likely that was where Joseph had wound up, he passed the separated bathrooms towards Moriarty's Saloon, as he approached the metal door burst open and his brother walked out with his knuckles bloodied and he had a triumphant look on his face when he saw his brother.

"What happened to you?" he asked

"I'll explain later, at the house." Joseph said, he heard the sounds of metal and glass breaking from inside the Saloon, "We had better run." Joseph said grinning pulling his brother along with him as he ran fairly quickly towards home.

When they got in the door of their home they were met with the smell of cooking meat, and the sight of Elissa taking well cooked meat off a small barbeque and laid the meat onto metal plates placing these plates down on the table as Ben sat down, Joseph however locked and bolted the sturdy metal door shut.

"So why did we have to run?" Ben asked getting his breath back "And why are your knuckles busted? Did you find anything about Dad?" Ben asked stabbing at his meat.

"Because I did not know when 'Mister burke' would be able to stand up and this Ghoul bartender was telling me that apparently beating the piss out of a total madman, and yeah I found out more about Dad, cost an arm and a leg though." Joseph said between gulps of water from a bottle of water he had taken from the humming fridge. Turns out residents of Megaton were given a weekly supply of purified water, five bottles per resident in a home so they had 15 bottles in total, just enough to get by if they rationed well.

Joseph talked for a long time about how their father had briefly stopped in Megaton, before heading to a Radio Station called "Galaxy News Radio" which was run by a DJ named 'Three Dog' who gave solid survival information and updates on what was going on in the 'Capital Wasteland', apparently James Warden had needed direction and a full recount of important events over the last eighteen years.

But that left them with another question, who was this Mister Burke and what could he say or do that would make Joseph happy over kicking the hell over them.

That was a slightly long story.

When Joseph had sat down with Mr Burke, it was not long before Joseph understood what the man was saying, apparently the man worked for very powerful forces within and outside 'the borders' and these forces had plans for the atomic bomb in the centre of Megaton, Big plans that Joseph and his family had now completely foiled and set back these forces back more than ten year's worth of planning.

The man had stood up along with Joseph and told him that He, and the rest of the Warden family had made an enemy of forces far greater and stronger than anything he could comprehend.  
And Joseph had heard enough.

Joseph head-butted Mr Burke causing blood to gush out of the tall man's nose and he hunched over as Joseph punched Burke hard in the stomach causing burke to go down onto all fours. Joseph landed a heavy blow to the back of Burkes head causing the man to fall down whimpering in pain, turning Burke over he hit him in the face once, twice as the man faded into apparent unconsciousness bleeding heavily from his nose.

With that done he threw some caps over to Gob for the mess before running out the door.

* * *

Joseph finished telling the story as everyone finished of their lunch and Ben whistled at the scope of all of it.

Just as they began to talk about what they planned to do in regards to finding their father they agreed to wait too tomorrow before setting out to D.C joking that if they had anymore excitement today Joseph would explode.

"Guess we might as well have a peaceful day for the rest of it." Elissa said optimistically.

"Well I was thinking, that if we moved these tables out of the way you might let me teach you too some proper hand to hand combat, along with proper knife and baton training." Joseph said crossing his arms.

"All right, a bit later say at-"

Ben was interrupted by the sound of hammering at the door and the voice of the 'Local Tough' from earlier rang out yelling "Open up Shit Birds! I've got a message from Burke."

"So much for peaceful." Joseph said clutching his Magnum and standing up from the table.

* * *

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last few days, but my internet has been very screwed up and i had a LOT of work to do around the house, including a lot of cleaning up, replacing a car radiator and then putting up a fan in front of it so the engine wont boil, or i think thats what the fan was from

Anyway please let me know what you think, i LOVE hearing reveiws, even if their negative its good to know someones reading :)

Stay safe you guys, and as Three dog would put it, Fight The Good Fight.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Joseph approached the door gun in hand whilst Elissa took position on the stairs with a hunting rifle taken from one of the dead raiders that same morning, the rifle fired powerful but plentiful rounds from a clip holding five rounds, new bullets had to be chambered by pulling the bolt.

It was fortunate he had been the first raider Ben had killed before Joseph showed up otherwise they might not have made it out of that school alive, if Jericho came through that door Elissa would have three seconds to take him down before she was spotted, she levelled the rifle at the door.

Ben grabbed one of their Knives and took cover behind the door that would allow him to stab at the man the second he came in.

Joseph looked at each of them before opening the door.

As expected there was Jericho (Joseph had heard about him in the saloon) standing out on the catwalk, what Joseph hadn't expected was Jericho to be standing with his arms folded and a neutral expression on his face.

"What do you want Jericho?" Joseph asked putting his Magnum into its proper holster.

"Well you see, Burke payed me to come over here, throw you're shit around, kick the shit out of you, you know general tough guy stuff, but I would rather not be shot by whoever you've got watching the stairs, so how about I come inside, and we have a smooth,_ calm _talk" Jericho said

Joseph considered that for a moment, "you're gun first, just to be safe." He said

Jericho obliged drawing his pistol and levelling it at joseph's head just long enough so he could chuckle darkly at the panic in his eyes before handing it over.

Elissa watched Jericho push Joseph inside, she gestured with the gun fir Jericho to sit, he raised an eyebrow at her, instead he walked over to the fridge, took one of their beer's, and sat down on top of an unoccupied shelf, looking at Ben still holding the serrated blade and laughed at him.

"So I repeat myself Jericho, what do you want?" Joseph said trying to keep authority in the situation.

"Well, from what I hear you're planning to head out into the wasteland, all the way to GNR in the city, and I get to asking myself, why would a bunch of Vaulties be wanting to get torn apart by Supermutants, a few drinks later I stop caring, but then I see an opportunity, what if I could give them a way too GNR and too Rivet City without getting enslaved, raped, murdered and then having you're body used for decoration, and how much would they pay for that Information." Jericho said feigning a look of thought.

"In that exact order?" Ben asked folding his arms and sitting on the Vault Tec Bobble-Head machine that had been ignored.

"That _exact_ order." Jericho said grinning "I Like this kid." He said

"What do you want then?" Elissa asked glaring at Jericho

"A night with you." Jericho said staring at her

"Fuck you!" She said indignantly

"Gladly." He said grinning, it's either that or you pay me my fee, three hundred caps for 'how to find daddy." He said

"Give us a minute." Joseph growled clenching his fist, it was a few minutes before they had agreed they needed the information, it almost broke them to pay that much, they barely had one hundred caps after that.

The Hours that followed were filled with nothing but research and cursing, Jericho had retrieved his journals and maps and now all they were doing was copying the places they were to pass through, the people and things they should expect, traders and scavengers they would deal with, raider gangs they may have to fight, along with trying to describe the big Yellow and orange monsters he referred to as 'Super Mutants' or 'Frankenstein's' and they were taken aback by just how sincere he sounded when he describe what they did to people, and told them about some of the friends he had lost to them.

It was well and truly night by the time he had left, leaving them with their copied maps and the details they were still entering into their PIP-Boy's.

"So what do you think?" Ben asked abruptly

"About what?"

"About it all, the things he described out there, we might be able to survive them, _might, _but we all know dad, man of action he was not, what are the chances he made it through all that?"

"Very little." Elissa said clenching her fist

"We're going to find him." Ben said looking sternly around the table.

"We will." Joseph agreed.

For a while they continued plotting their path, after they had all settled on one plan, Elissa set to organising their packs with what Ben had bought, started disassemble every gun checking for anything that could "Shit up their Shooting".

Whilst they did all that Joseph slipped out the door, he got the feeling that the Sherriff would want an explanation for all the commotion in the town, Joseph actually rather liked this town, he did not want his family marched out at gun point because he had been stupid.

It was cold and Joseph tucked up the collar of his vault suit clambering over a thick water pipe that separated the main path from the gate to crater and the split off to the large catwalk that went around the rim of the crater, up to the Sheriff's office he went shivering.

When he knocked on the Metal door he got a strong feeling like this had happened before, the door opened and a familiar looking kid was on the other side, he looked nervous but calmed when he saw the Blue Jumpsuit.

'_He saw the jumpsuit and thought realized I'm not here to do harm, someone told him about me' _Joseph realised when the Boy opened the door.

"Hey, Dad told me about you, are you hear about what happened in the bar? The boy stood up a little taller.

"Yeah I just wanted to clear the air over all that, make sure he's not planning to put a few bullets in my hide." Joseph said trying to smile.

The kid nodded and said "Yeah, he said that the guy you hit deserved it from what he heard, and he said that if you pay twenty caps he will let it all go." The Sheriffs son said looking up at Joseph.

Joseph nodded, handed over the money, and left trying to be as polite as possible.

Joseph turned back to the path up to the house, he was glad it was settled, and surprised Lucas Simms had let his son handle the matter, actually, why would the Sheriff let his son take charge of it?

_Was I just mugged? _Joseph thought turning back to the Office suddenly, he wanted to be angry but he rather admired the kid's nerve.

Joseph grinned as he walked up the ramp up the catwalk to the home they all shared, he stoped grinning when he saw Jericho still drinking at a small metal table, he actually looked like he was thinking deeply.

Joseph put it out of his mind and was about to open the door when the Jericho's voice rang out behind him.

"Kid, find your father, you don't want to lose someone this new into the world."

Joseph turned to say something back but Jericho was already walking away.

'_Can he pick an attitude? Drunk, experienced badass mournful sinner just bloody pick one._ Joseph thought turning the door handle.

When he walked in he explained what had happened to Ben who was still working, before going upstairs to rest, Ben said he would still be there repairing the weapons and adding armour to their Vault suits, one was already done rough metal and scraps of leather tied in with the blue fabric adding more protection.

"Don't do that to any of mine." Joseph said "the Vests are already heavy enough for me." He said patting his brother on the shoulder.

"I wouldn't waste this invaluable scrap metal and precious bits of leather on you anyway!" Ben called up the stairs after him.

Joseph smiled as he undressed and settled into his bed.

'_Tomorrow we set out, we'll find Dad, bring him back and…'_

'_And then what?' _the question rang in his head no matter how hard he tried to put it out.

He did not sleep well, little did Joseph know that sleep at all would soon become something so rare for him.

* * *

ok, first off i am really sorry, i know its unacceptable to post with this much of a delay and im REALLY sorry about that, the reason for it is :

well im not sure if you were in high school recently but lately my teachers haven't coordinated any of their assesments and im getting to the point where i have to start really trying with this stuff, so i've had like 4, 800 word documents i needed to type and all my time lately after that was spent with freinds now that we could finally settle our scores, so yeah sorrry but im claiming 'not my fault rights' for the moment :)

Stay cool you guys, and remember, 'What would V do ?"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Joseph woke feeling off, like something was wrong or that something was going down and he was missing it, trying to shake it off he dressed himself and walked down the stairs holding the Black Vest, he considered cutting away the yellow _101_ on the back and decided that was the wise thing to do, the numbers were quite bright as they were intended to be and he would be easily spotted, he sat down next to Ben and began to pull away at the stitching.

"Good morning" Ben said sipping something that was steaming from a mug.

"Morning, is that … Just hot water ?" Joseph asked

"We don't have any sugar or coffee, and I was cold." Ben said bitterly

"Sugar? Would you drink caramel" Joseph asked raising an eyebrow grinning.

"It's getting that way, think we will find a burnt out coffee store?" he said looking at Joseph with feigned desperateness.

They both laughed and Ben told Joseph that Elissa was getting ready to leave, and that he should be ready to leave within the hour.

Joseph passed that time by eating and making sure all his gear was ready, he would be carrying his magnum on his hip, with the 9mm silenced pistol snugly fit in the back of his belt, along with a baton strapped to his thigh, and the hunting rifle taken from the school clipped to his rucksack, part of him hoped he wouldn't need any of It but a larger part of him knew he would.

Ben was similarly equipped with a shotgun, knife and 10mm pistol and the same armoured up vault suit been working on the night before, Joseph was surprised to see he was deciding not to wear the vest, instead leaving it behind, but the real shock was what Elissa had done to herself.

She had cut her dark hair back almost shorter then Ben's, and as wearing clothes short a few severed hands sought of being like Raiders, with crude bits of leather and metal making armour everywhere it could be placed without hindering movement.

She had an Assault rifle in her hands that would also suit a Raider, and she had multiple other weapons attached to her body, she looked… savage.

"What the fuck did you do?" Ben said, the first to speak when she came down the stairs.

"Were going out into a world of blood thirsty killers, I want to try and fit in." she said trying to pass all of it off.

"Aren't you more likely too get us all shot by the better people out there looking like that?" Ben asked raising an eyebrow

"Shut up, and let's get out of here whilst we still have daylight." Elissa said gesturing at the door.

Ben and Joseph exchanged a look that instantly told each other what they thought, they both picked up their bags and followed her out the door, they walked in silence from the hose till they were through the gates.

As they walked west away from Megaton they all did their best to keep their eyes open for anything of note in the Rocky sandy path they trod towards to the Super Duper Mart nearby, then they would cross a small bridge across the river, then take a small detour down a broken up road to the Farragut Metro station, and from there follow the old train tracks to the next station, exit there, and they would be a short distance from GNR.

Joseph came up the Metro station stairs first, rifle in hand, followed by Ben and Elissa, he walked now on the level concrete path towards the signs painted on bits of raw wood, in white letters they said 'GNR this way'.

They were all glad to be back out in the sunlight, and out of the metro station that was infested with 'Feral Ghouls', Jericho's use of the word Zombie was quite accurate, nobody would admit it but when those things had been clawing at them through the chain link fence in the middle of the utility tunnel they knew that they used to be people, and knew it the entire time they were shooting them from the other side of that fence.

Joseph crouched keeping his eyes open for anything remotely dangerous around them, they were in DC, which was supposedly the biggest cluster of Supermutant encampments in the Capital Wasteland, he advanced forward, he was halfway to the alley which led to GNR when a rifle shot pierced the concrete wall not a foot away from him accompanied by a cry of "Their you are" in a snarling guttural voice that made his bones cold.

Joseph dived for cover behind an old rusted hunk of metal that used to be a car as more bullets shot behind him taking chunks out of the wall behind him, through a large hole where doors used to be he saw Elissa and Ben finding similar cover form the two huge yellow-orange humanoid monsters one shooting at the three of them, the other charging with a plank.

Joseph was the first to respond steadying his hands and aiming at what could only be Supermutants.

He fired his first shot which caught the one advancing low in the ribs, causing it to grunt in agony, but it still ran for his brother and sister.

* * *

Ben heard the monsters heavy footfalls coming closer and closer to their cover, he readied his Shotgun, he had seen the bloodied nail board I held, when it came over them and tried to bludgeon them, he and his sister would have to kill the thing within seconds, even if it did not kill them he still did not want to be hit with that thing.

It was a few steps away from him and he heard Joseph and the super mutant exchanging rifle fire.

The moment came and that sneering face came around board the board that was raised in above it head and red blood pouring out of its side, on instinct he shoved the barrel of the shotgun up in its face moving his body with it, he fired and as the recoil hit his arm the blood and brains of the Supermutant sprayed from where the monsters head was only seconds ago spattered onto him.

He realized his mistake and paled.

The Supermutant that had been shooting at Joseph had stopped and was now aiming right at him.

* * *

Just before the Mutant could fire, assault rifle rounds pelted into the things skin and crude armour, it was not enough to kill it but enough to draw its attention to Elissa, it howled as it started firing at her and screamed "I'll wear your bones! Around my neck human!" in the same guttural voice from earlier.

Joseph used that time to line up his shot, and the Mutant died in the same manner as the one before it with its blood spurting like a crimson fountain staining the road and dirt it had been standing on.

With another look around the area Joseph raised his hand to signal they were clear.

He approached the dead Super Mutant he had killed, and tried to properly take in its armour and biology, it huge limbs and torso, what looked like a cut up burlap sack as pants, the large pieces of Metal that were strapped together with rope and scarce wire, cut up tires used for shoulder pads, the yellow and orange skin that looked waxy and almost boiled.

Joseph picked up the dead Mutants Hunting Rifle and stowed it away, it had a few scraps of foul smelling meat and Joseph managed to dig out a few grimy bullets from its pockets.

He stood up from the corpse, he realised he had stepped in the things blood, _'good,' _he thought '_I wanted to leave blood everywhere, could be worse.' _He thought looking at Ben who was covered in spatter from the Mutant he had killed, who with Elissa was searching the mutant they had killed.

He walked over to them and hit his brother on the shoulder, the adrenaline was still coursing through him.

"Kickass!" Ben said returning it and nodding at the dead Mutants.

"We should mark down that we killed them." Elissa said smiling

Ben and Joseph looked at her, then nodded simultaneously, raising their 'Pip-boy's' and crouching as was 'polite' in the vault, and they went to the data section and entered the information.

"Do we want to do it independently or as a group?" Ben asked

"Both, that way we avoid arguments." Joseph said finishing entering his information, "now let's get going, there's probably more and they could have heard that." Joseph said as he stood again.

He was barley able to perceive it as the Red Lance of energy went past his head and melted almost completely through the concrete it hit.

"We heard, Turn around slowly." A audio processed voice said behind them, "And that was a warning shot, turn around. Slowly" The voice said.

* * *

Hey, thanks if your reading this far i really apreciate that, and it stuck out to me to make sure i mention it, im in Australia so i use 'non-American' english so thatswhy some words may look different

anyway like i said thanks for reading and have a good day, becuase i control that you know


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Joseph stood and turned around, every sense in his body was screaming at him too run away, he saw his brother and sister were doing the same, he caught sight of the people threatening them, across the rang of the small crater in the ground, maybe 15 feet away.

They were wearing Heavy, bulky armour of riveted plate metal that actually looked almost official, like it was made with care and consideration, all the joints on the armour were secured so it did not jam, and the main plates of armour that had taken dents and scratches gave an impression that the armour could stop a lot of damage, and the laser rifles in their hands also gave a similar impression.

"Drop your Weapons." The male said

"Who are you?" Elissa said levelling her rifle at the two new figures

"We're the Lyons Pride, Special operations team with the Brotherhood of Steel, now drop your weapons." The female returned.

"And if we don't?" Ben said crouching and following Elissa's example getting ready to fire.

"Reddin, Jennings stand down!" a strong female voice yelled out, what Joseph assumed was another Brotherhood soldier walked out of the alley they meant to go through. She walked with a determined authoritative stride.

'Reddin and Jennings' lowered their weapons, and as the new woman walked past the two of them and towards Joseph and his family, the two younger soldiers almost bowed with reverence.

"I am Sarah Lyons, Leader of Lyons Pride and Sentinel of the brotherhood of Steel, I apologise for these two, we have a bad enough reputation in the Capital Wasteland without our initiates holding up civilians." She said in a almost dead pan voice.

She took in the two Mutants they had killed, "Good job." She said "Tow Freaks would normally tear a few unarmoured humans into pieces, were making our way too GNR radio station, if you want too tag along we wouldn't mind the extra fire power, there's a lot of them between here and there." She said gesturing with her Laser Rifle

"Wait, run that by me again, your people threaten us, and now you ant our help?" Elissa said raising an eyebrow.

Ben nodded clutching his Shotgun closer.

"I'm asking, not demanding." Lyons said raising her rifle so that it followed upwards from her arm. "But I imagine your also heading for GNR, just seems pragmatic."

'_Pragmatic, so she's had a good education' "_Yeah we we'll go with you" Joseph said offering his hand.

She took it and they walked side by side down the same alley she had come from Jennings and Reddin taking the lead with Elissa and Ben following closely behind, they turned the corner to see yet another soldier in his Power Armour, he was crouched peeking out of the corner that led out the alley rifle in hand, he squeezed the trigger and Joseph heard a large thump and guessed that he had just made a kill.

"Five Mutants released from their torment Sentinel, it looks like the rest are waiting for us to try our way through that old building, only way from here to GNR except the Sewers., they have Muties with hunting rifles in the windows, not sure if we can take them out with just the four off us." He said turning to face the Sentinel.

"Guess it not four anymore, who are the civilians?" he asked and Joseph was sure he was raising an eyebrow inside his helmet.

"There here to see Three-Dog, I imagine they're the ones he's been talking about, that Doctor's kid's. She finished

"You've seen our father?" Ben asked surprise flooding his face

Lyons looked at him a moment before answering, "Yeah, we have been stationed in GNR for two weeks, to fortify the position and generally clear out the area, whilst we were doing a sweep a few days ago, Reddin here had a shot that made it through the side of her armour, it didn't look good but then this Guy in a Vault Suit showed up, took him half the day but he managed to get out the bullet, moved on just a few days later you'll have to talk to three dog, he will know more." She said

Joseph opened and closed his mouth a few times before he spoke, "He made it." He said to the others in almost a whisper.

Ben smiled at him and then looked at Reddin with a strange look of newfound respect.

"Where's the girl? Your sister where is she? The Soldier asked looking around, Joseph noticed a Cross was tied around his Rifle on a piece of cared for black string.

Ben and Joseph looked around but it was a gunshot and the sound of Elissa yelling that answered their question.

Without thinking Joseph and Ben rushed past the corner thinking their sister was in danger, when they turned they saw her firing a burst of fire from behind another rusted car, a mutant popped around through one of the windows and fired, the shot found its mark and Elissa cursed in pain falling behind the car, her arm was gushing blood.

Joseph yelped and fired on that mutant, the bullet going through its scrap armour and luckily piercing its heart, Whilst Joseph along with the four members of Lyons Pride kept the Mutants suppressed Ben ran over to Elissa, verifying what she was screaming, just a flesh wound.

It was a few more minutes and a few more scraps before they had cleared the Muties in the windows.

When The Cross bearing soldier and Jennings breached the door, they all ushered in quickly clearing the building, when they reached the broken door that lead to the plaza outside GNR.

The Cross soldier spoke up.

"I am Knight Captain Colvin, you, Joseph your name was? good, you seem to be the best shot of the three of you, come upstairs with me, we will give sniper support whilst they storm the Mutants in the Plaza. He said

Joseph nodded and followed him up the broken stairs, when they reached the window, they gave their signal by blasting the heads off two of the more brutal looking Mutants, the other four stormed out shooting.

Joseph did his best to keep up with Colvin's Superb shooting, he personally dropped three off them, Colvin taking four, and the men on the balconies killed one.

The three remaining were wiped out by Sentinel Lyons and the rest.

Colvin moved down with Joseph moved down joking that Ben wouldn't have any shortage on rifle parts.

They laughed and Colvin promised Joseph a drink as they walked through the door into the Plaza.

The Pride regrouped and signalled the men up top, the day was theirs.

Or at least that was what Joseph thought before he heard a heavy pounding that shook the ground, it was coming from behind GNR, whatever It was, was moving around towards a pile of cars that made a kind of wall between GNR and a old construction site that had collapsed when the bombs felt.

The two initiates went to run forward but Ben managed to grab Reddin before she ran.

Jennings made it over to the cars as Sentinel Lyons managed to choke out a yell.

"BEHOMETH" She yelled running for the building they had just cleared with everyone else running after her and the Balcony men ran inside.

Because as they made it inside, the Cars old engines chocked out an explosion when they were hit by a monumental force, in the form of a Fire Hydrant jammed into the piping attached.

That piping was attached to the arm of a fifteen foot tall immense Super Mutant, that opened its mouth holding up Jennings barley alive body.

And roared crushing his body power armour and all into a bloody heap with its bare strength as Jennings screamed


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Ben stumbled into the building desperately running from the Behemoth, he was the last in when the Sentinel closed the metal double doors.

She was astoundingly calm as she restored the same to her Men.

Ben breathed hard as she marshalled Colvin, Reddin, Elissa and Joseph to be ready to fire on the beast from the second floor, she turned towards Ben.

"In the middle of the Plaza, there's that big fountain in the middle, there was a dead soldier out there, he had a _Fatman_ missile system, it's what we will need if we're ever going to kill that thing, I need you to run out, and grab it and drag the bag of nukes back here." She said looking at her with a look somewhere between concerned and stern.

"Are you fucking high! With that thing out there? He yelled back drawing the gaze of all inside

"Don't worry, we've dealt with this situation before, we will cover you and draw its attention from the third floor where it can't reach us, whilst it's distracted, you run out." She said trying to calm him.

He waited a few moments before he nodded, "we'll get on with it then, I don have all day." He said trying to smile up his usual cockiness.

Joseph nodded and clapped him on the shoulder, "See you in a bit bro." he said

Colvin led them up the flights of stairs, and Ben prepared to run out.

He looked to see the Behemoth hitting at the building and occasionally breaking through the concrete trying to swat the others now attacking it from the third story windows.

He opened the door and bolted for the dead soldier, for a terrifying moment he thought the Behemoth was coming for him but it ignored him and kept roaring and reaching for the upper assaulters.

He reached the fountain and grabbed at what he thought had to be the _Fatman, _and the bag of nuke shaped missiles that it would launch, hefting them with all his might he ran back to the building, the Behemoth was shifting its focus too him.

He managed to make it just inside the building as the hydrant slammed don where he had been only two seconds before.

He collapsed on near the staircase, he had made it there and back in about seven seconds and Ben had never ran that fast before with that much baggage before in his life.  
When he got in Joseph rushed down to help him bring it up to Sarah Lyons.

When they got up he found the others had retreated away from the windows, Reddin had taken off her helmet and was mopping her brow with a dirty rag, Ben was surprised to see her hair was red and buzzed to the roots, subconsciously comparing it too his own mid-length steel hair.

The Sentinel looked up at the two of them, noticed what they were carrying, and her eyes lit up, she walked to them cautiously.

She immediately took the gear out of their hands and immediately loaded it, checking to make sure it all worked properly.

"All right, same drill, we fire from the third floor, except this time when you get too the other side and fire from underneath the balcony, then fire on the thing, then when it's back is turned, we fire the _Fatman_ at its back, one blast should kill it, if not…" She trailed off.

"And I presume you want us too run across?" Ben asked raising an eyebrow as the building thudded.

"Yes, don't worry, I believe in the plan, so much that I'll be running forward with you. Joseph I trust you to fire the _Fatman_. Lyons said turning and walking down stairs not leaving any room for argument.

Elissa followed Lyons and Ben down the stairs, to the door, Ben was calmer then she was, having made the run before.

Ben heard the shooting begin again and pushed the door open, sure enough the Behemoth was still trying at the shooters on the third floor.

He whispered "run" to the others, and they all sprinted for the space underneath one of the Balconies where the soldiers had retreated into GNR.

They made it under, and with another whispered order Lyons group tried to get the Behemoths attention with gunfire, but it didn't work, it kept reaching for Colvin and his group despite them having retreated.

Sarah produced a grenade.

"How good a throw are you two?" she said looking at the two of them.

"Elissa was a pitcher in the Vault Little League team." Ben offered

Elissa nodded taking it off her, "so you don't blow us all up, just throw it" she said "if we all fire at once, then one of us should hit it, or it will detonate when it hits the ground, either way, that should get it over here, far enough that they can fire the mini-nuke.

She nodded again and readied his arm to throw the grenade, she tossed it with all her force, it hit the ground and exploded at the monster's feet. It did its damage blowing away a large part of the mutant's upper leg, it roared in pain and looked around for the source of its agony, and it found the source in the form of bullets going into its huge head, and charged for Lyons group.

Joseph ran forward holding the Nuke-Launcher in his arms the way it was meant to be held, he crouched letting the end out the window, he raised it in his hands, the Behemoths back was turned to him, he fired, and with a _Ting_ it launched the nuke, it hit it in the up of its back, the Explosion was enough to knock Lyons and those on the ground of their feet.

The noise and the sheer power of it hid the Supermutant from view, when the smoke cleared Joseph, Colvin and Reddin could see the Behemoth had collapsed, a huge red crater in its back that Joseph would later swear he could see the ground through.

It was managed to crawl forwards just a few more meters with its one remaining arm, before it died its red blood pooling around it for more than a few meters.

Lyons, Ben and Elissa walked out from underneath their Balcony protection, they gave a hand signal to the three up top who quickly made their way too them down by the fountain.

When they all met up there was a few minutes of respectful silence as they gathered up the dead Brotherhood soldiers into the centre of the Plaza, Sarah Lyons sombrely told them they were welcome to come inside and that they had more than earned her respect.

As they were walking inside Reddin punched Ben on the arm, "Listen I know you're looking for your father, but it's getting close to night, you don't want to be moving around at night that's when the Supermutants are on their best guard, what you say you, your family Colvin and I get a drink together after you speak to Three Dog?"

Ben smiled and nodded to her as Sarah pointed the way to Three Dogs "nest"

They walked through a small corridor and up a smaller flight of stairs, when they walked up they were greeted by a strong excited voice.

"I know what you're thinking, who is this guy and why in hell should I care? Well you should care for it is I! Three Dog !"


	12. Chapter 12

"Umm hi" Joseph said taken aback by the flashy intro given too them by a young, black man who had his eyes hidden by sunglasses and his hair held in place by a bright grey head rap.

"Wait… you're the guy from the radio station! Holy crap man your station kicks ass!" Ben said enthusiastically.

"Heh heh guilty as charged he said pointing at a recording booth tucked neatly next too what looked to be his bedroom." Three Dog responded with an attempt at modesty. "Now to the point, I hear your looking for Father, yeah he came through here maybe a week ago, I had a nice long chat with him about the state of the wasteland, and I can tell you which way he went after that, but first I need you too do something for me, and the 'Goodfight'." Three Dog finished dramatically

"You know where Dad is?" Joseph asked raising an eyebrow.

"No, I know which way he went, I don't know where he could be now I just know where he went." Three dog said gesturing with his arm as though he had just given all of them a blessing.

"What do you want us to do? How long will it take?" Ben asked

"No more than a day, go there, take the dish, replant it hen just make it back here and forever be known as the hero's that restored GNR to its former glory and gave hope back to the capital wasteland!" Three Dog finished getting more excited with every word."

"Wait… Dish? Replant? What in the hell are you talking about?" Elissa asked angrily

"Calm down missy, all right ill start from the beginning, have you ever tuned in too GNR? Of course you have, well ever notice when you're in Megaton our Signal is absolute shit? And when you get closer to the city I clears up? Well only a few weeks maybe a month ago that wasn't a problem, a few months ago a group of Super Mutants decided it would be fun to use the big shiny thing at the top of the Washington Monument for target practice, and one of them made a lucky shot and destroyed my Radio Dish, and well that destroyed my ability to broadcast over the Wasteland, so what I need you to do is replace the dish, so I can spread my voice across the Wastes again!" Three Dog managed to spit out in one breath.

"Alright, and where would we find this replacement dish?" She asked calming if only little.

"I was hoping you would ask, well over in the Mall, that's the same place as the Monument since you're new out here, well there's this old museum devoted to important technological advances, essentially a whole lot of models and shit of stuff no one can figure out what is, but inside their I hear the Lunar Lander, yes that landed on the moon, has a dish that would be strong enough and resilient enough to serve as an adequate replacement, you reckon you're up to going over there, dragging it to the monument, and hooking it up?" Three dog said folding his arms and leaning against a wall an unshifting grin still on his face.

The Three members of the Warden family all took a moment to weigh their options, before finding they had none accept to do as Three Dog wanted, they agreed and were met with another wave of enthusiasm from Three Dog before they went downstairs, Ben was going to take up Reddin on that drink.

Joseph woke early in the morning finding himself in the bunk of one of the soldiers who had been left on watch for the night, with his Brother next to him and his sister sitting at a table sharpening a knife.

"Good your awake, wake up Ben, we're ready to set out, and no were not having breakfast, get up." She said throwing his pack at him, winding him.

It was about seven when they left the soldiers on guard still praising them for yesterday and wishing them luck, they travelled down through a back door dropping down out of the blown out backside of GNR, down to an overpass leading them too a metro station, they worked their way again through a similar set of utility tunnels until they found themselves in the train tunnels themselves, strangely the Ghouls they encountered were already dead from bullet wounds and blunt trauma, that put them more on guard as they moved as did the spray-painted gang signs the same as they had seen at Springvale School and the Super-duper Mart.

As they moved forward it became clear the Tunnels and the station they needed to exit at was infested with raiders, the corpses meat hooked to the ceiling being the first strong indication.

The second indication came in the form of the Raider carrying a pistol that joseph literally bumped into as he turned from cover behind a train carriage.

"Gut you Bleeder!" the man yelled but Elissa stopped him yelling further by tackling him to the ground and covering his mouth, the man struggled in vain as she pushed a knife down through his heart.

She stood up breathing hard pulling out the knife now coated in red, she turned and looked at Joseph who had aimed his rifle at the corpse. "Jesus Christ." He muttered

"Well I guess that's the last sign we need that there are raiders set up inside these tunnels." Elissa said wiping off the knife and taking the dead man's Chinese pistol and pocketing it.

"I'll take the lead." Ben said unlimbering his shotgun and moving on not looking at the body.

It was another few minutes walking before they came to an opening in the tunnel that seemed to lead out into the station, Joseph spotted a Neon Blue 'glow in the dark' paint proclaiming "LEFT EXIT TO MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY, RIGHT TO UNDERWORLD" it looked like the word 'Underworld' was much more recent then the other paint.

Joseph spotted movement in the corner of his eye, "Pip lights off!" he said realising these were the raiders he pulled the other two out of the light.

They retreated into a large shadow corner to plan their attack, they could see practically everything on the first floor, he noticed that there was a small almost broken service ladder next to him, he motioned for the others to stay whilst he climbed up, still hidden in shadow, when he made it to the top he had a good overview, he could see four raiders in the station, one on the ground floor sitting on an old rotted wooden bench, another walking along on top of a train carriage as a proper sentry, or at least she would have been were it not for the drink in her hand, the other two were sitting at a metal table playing cards, three guns, the one with a Mohawk playing cards had a metal pipe on his hip.

Joseph dropped back down, telling his brother and sister what he had seen, they agreed on a plan, Ben with joseph's hunting rifle lined up his sights on the one sitting at the bench, Joseph climbed back up the ladder and one hand holding onto the ladder he aimed his Revolver at the sentry, Elissa crept slowly forward along the side of the train and too where the old stairs up to the second floor and exits had been.

Halfway up the stairs, when she could just level the barrel of her gun at the two playing cards, she looked back at Joseph, he looked back at her, and then at Ben, he nodded, the shouted.

"NOW!" He yelled and the station erupted in gunfire, all at once bullets collided with the sentries chest knocking her backwards off the train carriage, the sitting man head exploded in red mist as the Hunting Rifle round split his head like a melon.

One of the Two playing cards went down with a burst of assault rifle bullets riddling his corpse, the other squealed and turned around, pipe in hand he charged for Elissa, she fired again and he fell to the ground, a single bullet in his leg.

As Ben ran up the stairs to support her he threw the rifle where Joseph dropped down needing to make sure the sentry was dead, he scooped up his rifle, the magnum could blow a 4cm hole in an inch of concrete, it would be inhumane to leave someone alive with a wound like that.

When Ben made it up the stairs shotgun now in hand he found Elissa beating the surviving raider with a rusted metal pipe, the man's blood spattered and misted until, three swings later, part of his head caved in and he was unquestionably dead.

There was an uneasy silence between them for a few seconds, broken by another gunshot from Josephs Revolver, spooked, Ben walked quickly to the railing and looked down at Joseph, who was standing over the now dead sentry, looking back up at him, it was another thirty minutes before they had picked the raiders and the station clean, they all walked together away from the main station, they had gathered together the bodies and poured out one of the barrel firers onto them that had lit the station.

As they walked away Ben kept staring at Elissa,

What in Hell could make it seem necessary to beat the raider to death like that?


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Joseph walked towards the chain link fence inside the Metro station that in a few steps would take them to the Mall in the heart of Washington DC, and less than a hundred meters away from the entrance to the 'Museum Of Technology', supposedly.

Joseph turned to the others, "Little help here?" he asked placing his hand on the bolted metal gate, with their help and the brutalised raiders pipe to pry it open, they made it through the gate and crouched as they walked up the Metro stairs, Joseph motioned with his hand for the others to hold up, he creeped up, he took a long look at the scenery around him, The Mall looked like some giant had stabbed the ground with a large axe, the grey ground honeycombed with trenches, and shallow hills of brought-in sand leading in to them.

He did not need to go into these trenches to know they would be filled with monsters, be they Supermutants or human, nothing good would dare to survive inside the hell hole that used to be one of America's many prides.

He looked to the towering Washington Monument, he thought he saw a large amount of machinery built in near the top but the sun prevented him from looking further.

He could see a path leading behind a large dirt mound that he presumed would lead to the outpost Lyons had told them was built around the monument, Lyons had also almost guaranteed that the path would have a few Muties on it, and that there was such a constant amount of gunfire in the background that no one would not even the Brotherhood would take notice.

He turned to Elissa.

"Listen, this is just an idea, but if Me and Ben go in there, fetch out the radio dish, then were going to need the path clear so we can move it without it taking damage, so what I'm suggesting is that while were in there, I need you to go along this path and clear it of Supermutants, plus make sure it's the right way to go to get to the monument, do either of you think that's a good idea?

To his surprise they both agreed and with a mutual 'Good Luck' they parted ways holding their weapons tight in their hands as Ben and Joseph walked quickly towards the Museum, they opened the old battered door that led inside, Joseph winced at the loud creak it gave off, they quickly went inside and looked through the room, three bigger Super Mutants, another well laid and executed plan and they were three large yellow corpses.

They worked their way up the stairs, the pathway had been crushed by debris, so they had to follow into some old Vault display, its floor was littered with many skeletons, most with large bits of their bones crunched under the uncaring boots of Super Mutants and other monsters.

Ben felt a chill go down him when Pre-recorded messages started describing features of the Vault, things He had grown up with.

It was a welcome relief when they got out, the Vault alarm blaring, Joseph was torn as they pushed through a double door, into a section of the Museum marked as 'Space Travel Developments.

When they got through, they saw they were surrounded by models, shiny tiny little rockets and planes in broken glass displays, most were broken but there was a very nice model of the Lunar Lander, Ben took it and showed it to Joseph, "That's what we're looking for" he said, Joseph nodded in response and gestured at another double door to their immediate left.

When they went through they had to deal with a few more Super Mutants, on Josephs advice, Ben held position while Joseph snuck around inside the vertical corridor built around some huge rocket, he got as close to the Super Mutants as he could, twice he was within a meter of them, before he used the Silenced 9mm to pumped a few rounds into their heads, it was just enough to make blood and horrible juices spray out their heads, thankfully not one of the 5 Muties he killed, something Joseph attributed to dub luck but Ben would go on to say that "He's just kind of a ninja like that"

They crept down the display walkway, after they picked a lock ("Should have bought Elissa after all"), they made their way through another short winding hallway, and when they came out, there was the Lunar Lander, Radar Dish on full display.

* * *

Elissa walked as calmly as she could, Assault Rifle in hand ready for any kind of enemy that had crossed her path, her armour was still coated in blood from yesterday, the Raider she had beaten, she didn't know why but she had just lost control, it was bothering her, the only thing she could tell herself was that she had just acted on instinct to protect the other two, but deep down she knew that was a lie.

She shook her head and griped her rifle tighter, she had to keep her head in the game, she crouched, she was about to make it up the hill hat led out of the trench she had just been sneaking through, she peeked her head up over the edge, twenty five feet away she saw the monument, a thick wall of iron plates and stone tablets had been erected around it by who she guessed had to be the Brotherhood of Steel, she could see their banners and soldiers by the front of their gate, their Power Armour dented but shining.

She took her gun by the wood exhaust close to the barrel and rose it above her head.

"Friendly!" she yelled out as the Brotherhood soldiers aimed their Laser rifles at her, when she got closer she explained what she was doing in the 'DC Hellhole', an older sounding Paladin told her that he was impressed with her for making it through the trenches alive, and that he knew of a better way from the Museum back to the monument, and ordered an initiate to show her that way, she they made her way through a huddle of Office buildings only having to kill two Super Mutants on the path rather than the twenty she would be killing in the trenches.

She made out of the building and came out closer to the building then the Metro station had.

She would watch the door, and wait for her family to come out, they will come out,_ 'they had too.' _

* * *

Joseph hefted the Satellite Dish on his back, it wasn't that heavy but he needed carrying it too go smoothly as possible, Ben opened the front door of the Museum and helped Joseph down the front steps flicking his eyes looking for hostiles.

A scuffling to their left and Ben's shotgun was turned in an instant and Joseph almost dropped the Dish, with a surprising amount of joy from Elissa she guided the through a side passage to the Monument, Joseph felt much easier with two people watching him.

When they made it to the Monument, a Paladin took off his helmet and approached them, guessing a conversation was coming Joseph set down the Satellite.

"Greetings." The older man said "I am Paladin Tristan of the Brotherhood of Steel, and I lead and represent the men occupying the Monument outpost, over the radio I have been instructed to grant you access to the outpost to repair the Tower, I normally would not comment but I wish to inform you that we off the monument outpost take it as a personal favour that you are doing this for Three Dog, and you have our respect and gratitude." He said in one long speech as he opened the huge steel gate.

He motioned with his arm for them to proceed.

With all the respect they could Joseph carried the Signal dish to the elevator and they all managed to just fit in with the dish.

When they got up to the top, they all shared a grin and did their best to follow Ben's instructions on how to install it, it was nightfall by the time they were done, it was well into the night, another grin, and they agreed Ben deserved the honours of pulling the switch to flood power into the Signal amplifier.

With a huge _Crank_ all the levers clicked in place, and flashing red lights appeared all over the tower, Joseph checked his PIP-boy which was hooked into the amps main terminal, _97% of optimal strength, projection range: total_.

Joseph opened his pack, Three Dog had given them a signal flare to shoot from the monument to let him know that everything had worked out, he looked at the others, and with a nod from Ben, he fired the pistol into the air the flair spun in the air leaving a yellow smoke trail before it exploded in a cloud that spread over and dissipated over the monument.

In a day they had given Three Dog a way too spread his word and the Goodfight, and The Brotherhood of Steel a way of communicating across the entire Capital Wasteland.

* * *

_Soo just a general question, why do Americans hate the letter 'u' ?  
anyway please reveiw, id like to hear the opinion of all those reading, especialy if your reading this far :)  
have a good day, if you dont, i will know, and i will hurt you  
_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Joseph, Elissa and Ben spent the night in the top of the monument, in an uneasy sleep, they rose with the sun, Joseph was the one that woke them, firing at Supermutants with a Sniper Rifle he had borrowed from the Outpost supply locker, and so it was an angry Elissa and understanding Ben that went down the elevator, they needed more supplies, ammo and weapons they were not short on since Elissa had been scrounging the valuables of every person they had killed, but you can't eat bullets, well not for sustenance anyway.

"Good morning." Paladin Tristan greeted them, "I hate to be so forward, and I would hate being seen as evicting you, but Elder Lyons has ordered me not to outsiders into Brotherhood facilities.

"Oh don't worry, we understand." Ben said cutting Elissa off before she could say anything that would get them 'forcibly removed'

The Paladin nodded looking at all three of them with respect, he noticed the Brotherhood stamped Sniper rifle in his hands, and then strangely nodded.

"You can keep that rifle if you like, it's a very fine weapon, but we have replacements, please take It as a personal sign of gratitude from every member of the Brotherhood of Steel, you restored our long range communication from the Citadel, you can't know how many lives you have saved." Tristan Said looking at the Three with so much respect that Joseph began to feel rather bad, he really had not intended to help them.

"Know you probably want to restock, we can't spare any food or water for you, that rifle, ammo and advice is all I can offer, if you need a way back to GNR I can direct you to the most secure route that the Brotherhood knows off, if you're in dire need of supplies, then there is a small town built into the Museum of Natural History just over there." He said pointing at the same building.

"Are they willing to trade with outsiders?" Ben asked pointing his shotgun into the air in one hand.

"They should be, the town is called Underworld, and just so you know, the place is completely filled with Ghouls, and they don't dress as… conservatively as most Ghouls, you may have to deal with looking at more than just their faces. Tristan said.

Joseph nodded, another ten minutes and they were walking to the Museum, Joseph could swear Elissa was glaring at him, he found it hard to care, she had irritated him, as much as he respected her abilities, and understood that she wanted to protect the two of them, and maybe that was genuine, but it was not just the Raider she had Brutalised, the corpses of the Supermutants they had passed weren't just dead, they had been butchered after death, a larger blade used to separate their heads which were left pushed into the mutants armour, Joseph did not feel much pity for them, the rope of heads around one of their necks stopped that, but the fact remained she had taken the time to do it, after they were already dead, why in the hell would she need to do that ?

They were about to enter the Museum of Natural History when a raspy female voice came from behind them.

"No further smoothskin, I've got this rifle pointed straight at your backs and I'm happy to use it if I have to, what brings you too our side of town? The Ghoul asked

"Can we go fucking anywhere without having a gun pointed at us?" Elissa exclaimed

"Seems not, fine ill just ask, are you here to cause trouble?"

"No, I swear we're just here to buy supplies, then we will be on our way." Joseph said sharing his sister's frustration.

"Well alright then, just make sure you're aware, if you do try anything funny the others will put you down in under a minute, this is the first Bastion for Ghouls in the entire Wasteland and we won't let Smoothskins like you screw this up for us. The Ghoul said walking forward and opening the door. "Names Willow" she finished

When they entered they walked around a large oval shaped set of ticket booths of rotting dark wood and then into a large atrium like Room, that was decorated with the Bones of long extinct monsters ('_dinosaurs' _Joseph thought to himself), what drew his attention was a huge stone building carved with a large skull, hanging off of it were large cardboard signs that proclaimed _Underworld _in yellow, unwelcoming letters.

Joseph looked at the other two, Elissa caught his eye, still glaring but Ben looked as nervous as he felt.

He tried to nod reassuringly at him but he felt it come off like he was trying to head-butt some invisible enemy, he strode forward and pushed the double doors open, they were greeted by a rotting smell that made Joseph gag for a second before looking up to see they were surrounded by maybe thirty Ghouls all looking at them intently.

"Well lookie here! A couple of Smoothskins here in our own town, welcome what brings you to our neck of the proverbial woods?" A Ghoul wearing a blue utility jumpsuit said cheerily in its rusty sounding voice.

Joseph did his best to take initiative, "um hi, were just looking to buy some supplies, and get going. He said.

"Well that's alright." said the Ghoul, I'm Winthrop, I'm responsible for keeping this place from falling apart on us and dealing with any Newcomers Willow says look friendly-"

"Well that's all very good now Winthrop but we don't want to bore our customers, my name is Ahzrukhal and I run 'the ninth circle' here in underworld, follow me to the bar and I will be happy to… take care of you." A Ghoul said interrupting Winthrop, his skin was burnt and seared the way most Ghouls were and he was wearing a slightly dirty grey suit.

"Bar? Well lead the way." Elissa said turning to her brothers, "I'm going to go have a nip, can you two buy what we need? We need enough food for five days.

Joseph looked annoyed but nodded, "We can forage for Water but having a few bottles of purified water wouldn't hurt, give us the bag of guns, we can trade them for what we need before we spend caps."

"And ill head over to whatever passes as an infirmary here to see if they sell, I don't like leaving without disinfectant and bandages, maybe Med-x but the first two we need." Ben said checking how much money he had, barley over two hundred caps, that was good, with the Weapons they had the parts alone would be worth over a thousand, not to mention the ammo.

Elissa agreed to meet up with the two of them in the bar, she was glad to leave the two of them, she thought that if she saw Joseph giving her the look he had been lately then she would punch him in his damned face, she pushed the door to _'The Ninth Circle' _open trying to ignore the surprised looks she was getting from the local drunks.

She pulled out a stool at the bar and ordered a beer almost impressed by how ornate and almost pretty the Bar was, with heavy rugs on the floor and low set tables so Ghouls could kneel rather than sit on the shitty bar stools, other than those though the bar was generally pretty.

Elissa looked around to see the local drunks had gotten back to what they were did best, the only Ghoul not drinking was Ahzrukhal and a rather tall Ghoul in a corner close to the door, he had a Pump-action Shotgun in his hands and he caught her eye, the look she got was not the look of boredom she expected, or hostility, it was like being under examination, like he was just making observations about her, then he turned his head away from her and went back to giving everyone in the room that look.

"Pick your poison…. Elissa was it?" Ahzrukhal said putting a glass down in front of her.

"I'll have one for me, and one for that guy over there in the corner." Elissa said eyeing the Tall Ghoul.

"Oh Charon over there, he works for me and doesn't really partake, not really that talkative either." Ahzrukhal said now looking mildly annoyed, or maybe he looked ecstatic she could never tell with Ghouls.

"Why not? Why won't he talk?" Elissa asked and ordered a drink.

Ben walked into the Underworld Medial Facility, he _really_ hoped they sold medical supplies, he couldn't leave without at least some kind of disinfectant, he did not want to try and deal with infection out here especially given that he wouldn't have any tools in case things took a turn for the worst.

He was greeted by an even worse smell and hat he saw was only able to shock him a little after what he had seen in the last week and a half since leaving the Vault.

The Room had long windows which gave a view of two glowing green Feral ghouls that were walking around occasionally sniffing around inside a sealed room, it looked like the doctors, or maybe they were scientists, in any case they had been observing the ghouls, trying to chart differences between regular Ghouls and Feral Ghouls.

"Hello, wait you're human! Would you be interested in helping me?" A droll then very excited voice asked him.  
"Uuummm…" Ben said taken aback by the sudden appearance of a Ghoul wearing blood spattered clothing, he had a red cross painted on his white shirt.

"It would only hurt a bit, a bit of skin? Blood? A clump of hair? A finger? Come on anything will help my research" The Ghoul said picking up a scalpel and looking at Ben expectantly.

"Put down the blade, what research?" Ben asked putting his hand an inch closer to his gun.

The Doctor looked impatient, "I'm trying to discover what the full differences of Ghouls and Humans, so far all of my research has been theory work but with just a sample of you, I could begin in earnest, maybe even find a way to reverse the changes." He said.

"What's your name? Ben asked putting his hand out for the scalpel

"What's yours?" Doctor Barrows said handing it to him

"I'm Ben, now who are you, assuming this doesn't get too crazy, I might be able to help." He said.

"I'm Doctor Barrows, I was an expert surgeon, maybe the last one after the bombs fell, early into the days following the fall, I was highly affected with Radiation causing my present condition, since then I've been researching a way to change myself back." The Doctor said.

"Right, well I also consider myself a doctor, mechanic and somewhat of a scientist, so I can understand why you're so interested in this, however I'm not willing to part with a finger, some blood maybe, and you will need to pay me _a lot_ of money if you want me to part with my hair, or my skin for that matter." Ben said folding his arms.

"Fine, fine, fine…. You give me some hair, blood and a two small samples of your skin, and I'll pay you say two hundred caps." Doctor Barrows said

"Call it a hundred caps and some medical supplies," said Ben.

"Medical Supplies?" Barrows asked furrowing what little remained of his eyebrows.

"Like I said, I consider myself a Doctor." Ben said handing him back the scalpel.

Joseph had bought the supplies he had been ordered to get and was waiting outside the infirmary for Ben, he didn't want to face Elissa alone, especially not if she had been downing something, not a happy drinker that one.

When Ben came out he looked a little bit pale and he had clean white gauze tied to his arm, the white shirt he had been wearing had fresh blood on top of the coating it already had, the only good sign was he had his pack on his back which looked to be now overflowing with Meds.

"What happened to you?" Joseph asked putting his hands on his hips.

"There was this Ghoul in there… he's doing research into Ghouls and Humans and he needed… samples… I helped out" Ben said slowly slurring his words.

"God, how the hell did you do that?" Joseph asked raising a concerned eyebrow.

Ben grinned strangely, "I gave him some, some blood, a patch of my skin." He said raising his arm. "And I gave him some of my hair." He said pulling on where a lock of his steel gray hair had used to be.

"Jesus, did they give you the Med X before or after you agreed to let them chop you up." Joseph asked pulling his brother along past Tulips store where he had bought the supplies and tried to help him up the stairs to the ninth circle where Elissa was.

"Well I agreed to it, they took my blood using a tube thing, and then they pulled my hair, then they doped me up before they started to cut me." Ben said stumbling onto all fours halfway up the stairs.

Joseph pulled him to his feet, "Does it hurt?" Joseph asked as they made it up.

"Oh yeah, without the Med X I think I would be crying, I'd never had Med X before, now I see why Wally Mack was always deliberately breaking his bones, this stuff would be worth it." Ben said, before suddenly passing out on the walkway against a railing.

When Joseph had stopped panicking he dragged his brother into the '_Ninth Circle_', drawing more than a few eyes, when he got in Elissa turned around and gave him a look similar to the one he must have given Ben.

"Fucks with him?" She said it more like a statement.

"He helped out, or gave samples or did something down in the town clinic, now he's all doped up on Med X, help me sit him down will you?" Joseph said cringing inwardly, his brother was passed out and his sister was drunk and they were in a settlement where Joseph had no idea where he could find a place for them to sleep, and they it was not even 12pm yet.

They certainly would not be leaving Underworld today, and if Joseph worked hard, they might survive till the next day.

Then Elissa fell out of her stool next to him and onto the ground.

"What was she drinking?" Joseph asked nudging her with his foot.

"She started with beer, then Whiskey, then Vodka, I don't know what she was trying to forget but it must have been bothering her." Ahzrukhal said wiping down the glass Elissa had just been drinking from.

"Probably not, could you help me drag them both to… I don't even know is there anywhere we can sleep?" Joseph asked pulling Elissa next to Ben.

The Ghoul nodded, "There's a common room on the first floor, its only ten caps a night so thirty for the three of you."

Joseph nodded, Ben was beginning to regain consciousness, "Right, has she paid yet?" Joseph asked nudging Elissa a little harder, she grunted.

"No, and she was running quite the tab." Ahzrukhal said.

"NO" Elissa muttered loudly

They both looked at her

"I Paid for my drinks as they came, you rotten liar!" Elissa said.

"You are mistaken dear woman, you did not pay, you owe me forty three caps." Ahzrukhal said looking irritated.

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Are you calling my sister a liar?" Ben said suddenly aware.

"No, I am stating that she is wrong, I'm not accusing anyone." Ahzrukhal said getting nervous, they were starting to draw attention.

"Well I call that an accusation." Joseph said putting his hands on the table.

Ahzhrukhal looked around, then looked at Joseph, no behind him, than nodded.

Before Joseph could respond he was grabbed, he felt strong, course hands grabbing his right arm, and twisting it behind his back.

"Leave now" A Harsh Ghoul voice said turning him around, in the space of a second he had been turned around and pushed out the open door.

The next second he was leaning against the railing, watching Charon drag Elissa out of the 'Ninth Circle' and next to him on the rail while Joseph tried to figure out what had happened.

He watched as Ben threw a right hook at Charon.

Charon in one fluid motion, ducked under his hand, grabbing Bens arm as he twisted around behind him, he forcibly straightened Bens arm and stood down hard on his Leg still holding his arm, Charon struck a hand hard into the side of Bens head causing him to fall onto the floor groaning.

Ben kept hitting Charon's leg as Charon dragged him out, it was a long stare down between the Warden family and Charon before Joseph through a bag of caps to the tall Ghoul, just incase Elissa was lying, which knowing her she was.

Joseph did his best to drag the other two down to the common room, laughing when they both fell down the stairs, when they got there, and paid the attendee they were allowed through a large door, when they walked inside they found the room empty of any people, apparently ten caps was a lot of money for the Ghouls, it was a few seconds before Joseph realized how damn nice those beds look, and despite himself Joseph found himself nestling into the cozy, white, clean mattress made floor.

They woke up just past midnight, Joseph kicking the others awake, surprisingly the first coherent one was Elissa.

"Evening." She said.

"Evening, wait, aren't you meant to be hung-over?" Joseph asked still shaking Ben.

"Please, the swill they served e was practically water, I was sober the entire time, I just didn't want to pay that ugly asshole good money for bad beer.

Joseph shook his head. "Did you at least pick up anything useful while you were in there?" He asked.

She inclined her head and closed her eyes, a few moments later she opened them again.

"That big Ghoul who evicted us? His name is Charon."

"Yes that's very useful." Joseph said rolling his eyes.

"Shut up I wasn't done, apparently Ahzrukhal owns some kind of contract over Charon, because the guy was brainwashed or something so that he obeys the wishes of whoever holds his contract, and you saw how easily he put the three of us out, I figure if we get that contract… well maybe he's as good with that shotgun as he is with his hands." She finished looking at their bags, the one with all the weapons was still full.

"Alright what do you propose we do to get the contract then? I can't see stealing it or forcing our way in there going over too well." Joseph said, Ben was starting to rouse rubbing his eyes and cursing.

"Well I'm thinking we could just buy it, ask how much he wants for it, see if we can't beat him down but otherwise we just pay the price, if he wants more than we have then I don't think the price would be worth it to begin with." Elissa said taking out a bag of caps.

"So what? We get this Ghoul, get back to Three Dog, find dad?" Ben said begging to stand up and wipe himself down.

"Yeah, I figure he has a three day lead on us, but he's only human, dad was always sneaky, but there's a lot of danger between here and wherever he's going." Joseph said picking up the bag.

They bought all their things with them as they walked back to Tulip's store to exchange their valuables for Caps, after fifteen minutes they had made fifteen hundred caps, they had to count the Money by weighing it.

They walked up the stairs exchanging nervous looks with each other.

They opened the door to the "_Ninth Circle"_ to find it was almost empty, except for Charon, Ahzrukhal and the one or two remaining drunks.

Ahzrukhal looked at them with…. Well the polite word was scorn.

"What do you want?" Ahzrukhal asked glaring at them.

"Funny thing that, Wastelands a funny place isn't it? Well your guy Charon, I think he's pretty funny, I'd like to take him with us, lighten us all up a bit." Joseph said walking calmly towards the bar and placing his hands down the same way he had earlier.

"What do you mean?" Ahzrukhal asked.

"His Contract, the one you told me about when you thought I was drunk, we want to buy it from you." Elissa said halfway to the bar, crossing her arms.

Ahzrukhal considered this for a moment. "Charon is a very valuable asset to my bar, he won't come cheap." He said

"Were willing to pay a lot, now how much do you want for this _handsome_ man." Ben said twisting the word.

"Two thousand caps." Ahzrukhal said crossing his arms.

Joseph did his best to not react, "That's a little steep, one thousand and we have a deal."

"Are you insane? Give away my protection for only a thousand?!" Ahzrukhal said getting angry.

"No, but that's the price were offering, and you're going to take it, think about it, you're smart, he's not the only way you could get of protecting yourself." Elissa said remaining stone faced.

"If you mean all I should do is buy a gun then I-"

"That's not what we're saying, this town works for you, and you've seen the Guard Robots they have just wandering around all day, just influence everyone to concede to giving you one." Ben said standing next to Joseph." Charon had remained silent this entire time.

Ahzrukhal considered this for a moment.

"Tell you what, we'll pay you a twelve hundred caps, you give us the contract, and we all leave town today." Joseph said offering his hand.

"Caps, now, all up once." Ahzrukhal said unfolding his arms, he put his hand on something beneath the counter.

The Family looked at each other, Joseph nodded at Ben who came forward and put the bag containing the twelve hundred caps they had already counted out, Charon removed the remaining patrons from the bar.

Ahzrukhal opened the top of the bright orange backpack and his eyes widened considerably when the caps spilt out onto the table.

Without another word Ahzrukhal took out a heavy piece of Vellum out of his inner suit pocket, and laid it out on the table.

"This is Charon's Contract, by my advice, do not actually read the paper, its contents are extremely…. Unnerving." Ahzrukhal said.

"I'm going to be the one to carry it." Ben said, "I'm not quite as good a shot as you two, if push comes to shove I want the advantage." He said jokingly.

Ahzrukhal `smiled' as he motioned Charon over.

Ben took the contract in his hand, it seemed Ahzrukhal had sealed the Contract with wax some time before.

"Why don't you tell Charon here the good news?" Ahzrukhal asked.

Ben looked Charon in the Ghouls blue eyes, "I Purchased your Contract from Ahzrukhal." He said waving the Contract in the air.

"You purchased my Contract?" Charon paused. "May I have a moment to speak to my former employer?" he asked.

"You will do as I say?" Ben asked

"My Contract binds me to you, I am to do everything you instruct me to do, exactly as you instruct me to do it." Charon said, "What is your name?" Charon asked.

"Ben, Ben Warden." He said in response.

"Then yes, I will follow your commands to death." Charon said "May I have a moment?"

"Sure, after that were leaving town, any problems?" Ben asked

"No Boss." Charon said turning to Ahzrukhal.

"So Charon, going to say goodbye?" Ahzrukhal asked mockingly

"Yes, Goodbye Ahzrukhal." Charon said.

Elissa and Joseph had already turned to leave, Ben was about to walk away when there was a scuffiling of leather behind them.

Before Ben could react Charon had leapt over the counter and forced Ahzrukhal to the ground, the next second Charon had seized a wooden bat next to him and stuck Ahzrukhal in the head with it.

Ben watched as Charon took out a Combat Knife and drove it directly through Ahzrukhal's skull.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Ben yelled, Joseph already had his Magnum trained on Charon.

Elissa remained calm.

Charon stood up and wiped off his knife, noting the gun being pointed at him.

"My Apologies, but I needed to do that before we left, Ahzrukhal was an evil bastard and I could not leave town knowing he was still alive too torment the less fortunate of this town." Charon said calmly.

"I did not order you too that, are you capable of independent actions?" Ben said motioning for Joseph to stow the gun.

"Only in combat, I am bound to kill anyone who attempts the same on you, I am to follow your orders and never work against you in any way, killing Ahzrukhal could only benefit you and your reputation, for example, you can take back those caps now, and the body won't be discovered until we have left, I am sorry if my actions have upset you." Charon said in an almost uniform way.

"I like the sound of that." Elissa said picking up the orange bag.

Ben exchanged a look with Joseph, then looked at Charon.

"All right, let's move out." Joseph said motioning for the others to follow him as he walked out of the _'Ninth Circle_'.

So with Charon in tow the Warden family set off from Underworld, and towards GNR to find their father, deep down Ben was beginning to doubt that their Father was really alive, and even if they did find him, would they all survive the road to finding him?

And would their Souls survive?


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

It was half a day's walk before Joseph, Elissa, and Ben made it across Washington, Charon showing them the most effective way there, having him around made the Job a lot easier always knowing the most accurate way to go, and always having an accurate shot with his shotgun, which he treated better than a child.

All he Brotherhood of Steel soldiers and Supermutant corpse had been cleared away, save for the Behemoth, whose blood had permanently stained the ground, its head was severed from the torso and looked like it had been used for target practice.

As they approached the building, the Brotherhood soldiers saluted the as they walked past, one pulled Joseph up.

"That Frankenstein you killed, the big one, were wondering if you would mind us using it for decoration, mount its head from the Balcony? Three Dog gave us permission but he said we should wait for your permission." The Knight Sergeant asked him, he couldn't see the man's eyes behind the black visor of his helmet, but Joseph was sure the man's eyes were gleaming.

Joseph considered it for a moment. "Yeah, feel free too, just give credit too who made the kill." He said showing the Knight the section of his Pip-boy devoted to counting his own kills.

The Knight laughed and clapped Joseph on the back as the group went up the stairs, Charon got a few stares but he did not notice, either immune to it by now or he had simply registered them as non-threats to the group and thus, stoped caring.

When they got up too Three Dog they were greeted by a wave of excited energy about how they had saved the Wasteland, Elissa looked pessimistic about it but Joseph and Ben seemed to just soak it in.

"So yeah, long story short, you guys fucking rock and just showed the others how to make true progress in the Goodfight." Three Dog finished dramatically.

"We were happy to assist, now about our father?" Joseph asked trying to be politely.

"Oh yeah, shit I almost forgot I've been so happy, spreading the word of what you 'cats did for the Good Fight, your father James, great guy for the record, he was heading down to Rivet City to see Doctor Li, she's the head of science shit over there, real genius she's working on making it possible to grow healthy, non-irradiated food out of the ground." Three Dog said nodding his head along with fourth word he said.

"Rivet City, that's on the other side of town, it would only take a day to get there, if we leave now we can be there by nightfall." Joseph said turning to the others.

Charon nodded to confirm, "That's applicable assuming we leave within the hour, which I would recommend."

"Then let's get going." Elissa said already walking for the door and Ben, looking uncertain.

"Give me a minute, I will meet you out the front." Joseph said.

When the others had left Joseph turned back around to look at Three Dog.

"Now I take it that you've already started to broadcast what we've done in the Wasteland, well I'm just wondering, what are you referring to us as?" 

When Joseph and the others left GNR it was too s similar course of congratulations and Paladins wishing them good luck, apparently the Lyons Pride had moved out of DC the day before they arrived, heading back to the Citadel, with a request for Reinforcements for the largest Brotherhood outpost in DC.

It was another seven hours before they had made it through the Metro subway, under Charon's advice they pushed through the Subway much faster then they would have on their own, he seemed to know just the right way to sneak past the Raiders and Supermutants, despite Elissa's continual attempts to persuade them to take out every enemy they encountered.

And when push came to shove he was invaluable, he turned out to be an excellent shot, perhaps better then Joseph, and whenever an enemy got close without being killed by the other three he was able to dispose of that enemy quickly and lethally.

When they exited the station at the end of the train line, it was a short confrontation with a raider gang that ended with only a few grazes and one flesh wound, it ended a lot worse for the few Raiders who escaped back down the dark tunnel.

They were walking towards the exit of the underground station when there was a sudden, loud female scream from behind them, the group whipped around weapons already drawn.

"What was that?" Joseph whispered to the others staring down the corridor they had just came through.

"Sounded like someone screaming." Charon said sounding almost disinterested.

"No shit, but why? Do you think one of the raiders came out of the bathroom?" Elissa said looking at the others not quite raising her rifle.

"No, if you will permit me Boss, I know what it is." Charon said looking at Ben.

"Yeah then tell us, the hell is that and is it a threat?" Ben asked, he and Joseph were the only ones actually aiming in case the woman came around the corner.

Charon nodded, "It's the tunnel howler, I'll put it too you this way, we don't want to be here when it comes around that corner." He said nudging Ben over to the door

After an extended look Joseph motioned for the others to heed Charon, and it was with a nervous shake they looked around, and found another pipe to wrench the Metro grate door with, which was becoming their go too strategy for dealing with locked doors.

The screaming had become wailing and screeching when they wrenched the door open enough to squeeze through.

They made it into the evening air outside of the Metro station, Joseph looked around at the scenery that might have once been a water front facing towards an Air Craft Carrier that looked like it had broken up with the bombs, it was a minute before Joseph started to truly realize mankind's ingenuity, at the same time Charon pointed at the larger still stable half of the ship and told them that it was where they would find Rivet City.

"Dear god…. Wasn't there… I don know, like anything else humanity would have built a civilisation into?" Ben asked Charon his eyebrows almost touching his hairline.

"Well that tub's pretty secure once they had cleared all the Mirelurks out, plus it had built in medical and science facilities, so it was only a matter of time once the strong ones like me cleared it out that the egg heads, like you boss except without the ability to handle a gun, well they started to move in, then traders came, security team were created to help fend off attacks, and before long there it was, one of the best made settlements in the Wasteland, maybe in the world." Charon said in almost prideful tone as thy walked towards the boarding platform for the town, he didn't think the others would have known how to get access to the city without him.

"How do you know all of that? When did 'they clear it out'? Ben asked occasionally glancing back at the Metro Station entrance, finding out what the Train-Howler is was next on Ben's list of priorities.

"We cleared it out back in 2168, I was only a few years ago that it started to become 'Rivet City, and I know all of this because I was around when it happened, hell my employer at the time made me lead the team that cleared it out." Charon said as they passed a large pile of rubble.

"Wait… 2168? Your shitting me how the hell could you have been alive?" Ben exclaimed stopping the group, "are you allowed to lie to me?" Ben asked.

"No, I am not allowed to perform any action that could harm you, damaging your reputation would calm under that, are you aware of how long Ghouls live for?" Charon asked waiting for Ben to start walking again.

"I though apart from radiation and you know, the whole appearance thing that Ghouls were mostly the same as um… normal people." Joseph offered weakly.

Charon shook his head as they walked up the metal ramp, "I don't truly know how long we live for, I have never known one of us too die from old age, a few of us, including me have memories of before the war." Charon said, when they reached the top Charon tapped on an intercom.

"Welcome to Rivet City, please wait while the bridge extends." An almost robotic voice rang out.

True to its word a catwalk was swung into position bridging the gap between the small metal hill they were standing on and the Aircraft Carrier, it looked like the water beneath the bridge was littered with the corpses of Supermutants and raiders, though the amount of blood staining the rocks even beneath the water hinted to him that there once had been a lot more broken bodies of fools who had tried to enter without permission.

As they walked closer to the ship Joseph noted two people standing in their way, in front of the entrance to the city, they were wearing Black Combat Armour the same kind as soldiers were shown to have worn before the war.

One was leaning against the back wall a bit too the right of the entrance, a 10mm submachine gun dangling loosely from one hand, the other was standing directly in front of them, holding a Chinese assault rifle in his hands.

'_That's not all they would put in front of us, they have to have snipers somewhere, the walls are high enough.'_ Ben thought to himself.

"Hold up" the man in front of them responded, "State your business in Rivet City." He said, the rifle in his hands seeming to exist only to show he had power.

"We're… we're just wandering, we could just use a drink and a decent bed and we'll be on our way." Joseph said looking across the top deck for some kind of snipers nest, he found it, multiple men and women all in that black armour that blended in with the tarmac.

"Wandering? Aye all right you can come in, don't go causing any trouble though, troublemakers wind up in the bottom of the river.

"**AT** the bottom of the river." Ben corrected as the man nudged them forwards.

They had to spend the night outside for that the others cursing Ben until Charon told them to stop, almost ordering them, apparently extended harassment was something he was also quite keen to stop from happening to his employer, so they stowed their insults for when he couldn't hear them.

When they entered Rivet City itself, the guards eyeing them Ben claimed to need more shotgun ammo for Charon and himself and wanted to see the market anyway, Elissa agreed to go with the two so it was up to Joseph to find Doctor Li, it wasn't long before he found himself walking through a series of very old metal corridors doing his best to follow the directions to the Science Lab.

In his heart of hearts Joseph was truly beginning to doubt if they would ever find their Father, perhaps this would be it, go from place to place following in his footsteps, until they encountered something that they just couldn't take down, maybe one of those Sentry Bots would still be active, maybe it would register them as hostiles and eradicate them with all the explosions in the world, or maybe it would just be some punk making a lucky shot, until one by one they were all dead, their bodies rotting and devoured by feral animals.

Joseph shook those thoughts out of his head, they would find Dad, maybe he would be there, in the Science Lab waiting for them having heard about their escape from the Vault, they were only two hours behind him when they left, and Three Dog had been reporting that a day after they left, he had probably tuned into Galaxy News Radio in the last week, it was likely at least, and Three Dog made sure it was in his nightly updates.

'_How did Three Dog know we had left that soon after? Does he have feelers or something reporting to him from HAM radios or something, maybe-'_Joseph's thoughts were cut short when he arrived at the pressure door to the Rivet City Science Lab.

Turning the heavy seal on the door, Joseph entered to a strange soil smell and the sound of something boiling, he sighted a woman who matched the photo of Doctor Li Three Dog had given them.

Ben walked into the Market place, he and the others strolled around trading their loot for the supplies they needed, halfway through dealing with the hyper-masculine owners of the main gun store, Elissa told the she was too bored by the "caps counting" and that she was going to grab a drink and meet them on the bridge out of the city saying "it's not like we'll find anything other than another bullshit clue." As she walked away

He and Charon walked around the market awhile longer looking for anything that Ben or Charon could make use of, he managed to buy some schematics from a junk salesman for something called a 'Railway Rifle' that, if it worked, would shoot out the same kind of spike used to secure railways, with enough force to completely rip off body parts and pin them too walls, he didn't think Joseph would be too much a fan of it, but maybe Elissa would fancy it, given what she had probably done to the bodies of the corpses they had left behind in the subway, why the hell else would she have asked for the others to go ahead while she lingered?

A while later a stoned faced Joseph took Ben and Charon away, telling them that the Jeffersonian Memorial a click away from their current position, apparently that was where dad was heading last, it was rare to see Joseph as angry as when Ben told him that Elissa had shrugged off duty for a quick drink, Charon along with every other security guard tensed as he walked by almost shaking with barley controlled rage, he knew that it would be a long time before they actually left, this would be the outlet for Joseph to let out all the rage and aggression he had been building up, at least Elissa seemed to have found an outlet no matter how twisted it was.

When they left the market place and Joseph saw Elissa, Joseph shook.

A Long Time


	16. Chapter 16

It was a fuming Joseph who neglected his own advice and walked ahead of the others saying he would deal with whatever was surrounding the Memorial himself, this was after yelling match between Joseph and Elissa that almost resorted in a fist fight between the two on the Rivet City bridge.

Ben ordered Charon to set down on the ramp with the BOS sniper rifle that Joseph had left with him, and watch over Joseph whilst he snuck his way through the Supermutant lines amassed around the building, silently dispatching every Mutant he passed, or waiting for the right moment, the right back to be turned so he could make a masterful shot with his 10mm pistol Ben had upgraded to include a suppressor.

Once or twice he was seen but all the Supermutant managed to do was raise the flesh where its eyebrows should have been before a 50. Calibre Bullet split its head into a thousand shards of skull and brains.

Another twenty minutes like that with the others attentively, Elissa growling at the kills and muttering that Joseph would take the Supermutants head on if he had any balls, rather than sneaking around like a coward.

By the time Joseph was finished disposing of the Supermutants and stood on the metal embankment signalling them.

The two glared at each other as they walked forward and Ben dreaded the moment Elissa would open her mouth, she never knew when too just leave it alone when it came to Joseph.

"Nice job, I particularly like how you didn't have to take a single risk like facing one of these things on your own, a single thing went wrong you let Charon clean it up for you." Elissa said snidely kicking the head of a dead Supermutant brute.

Joseph turned around, Charon's hands braced whispering to Ben that he just needed to give him the word if he wanted Charon to separate them.

"Not taking a risk? I just killed twenty mutants at extremely close range, without any of them getting off a shot and you're claiming that I didn't take a risk? What would you only have been satisfied if I put a knife in between my teeth and charge over here guns blazing kill these fuckers with my bare hands?" Joseph asked keeping his voice as level as he possibly could.

"Not satisfied, not even then, not with you." Elissa said stepping back so everyone in their group was in her view.

"Listen up" she said looking each and every one of them in the eye, "After we find Dad I done, I don't know where I'll be going I just know that wherever it is I'm going to be far, far away from you, before your lofty ideas get me killed!" She yelled Joseph wincing at the volume.

Everyone was to shocked by those words to interrupt when she paused, she continued.

"Ben, you can handle yourself, you know how to roll with the punches and adapt to different situations, but Joseph… your fucked, your first instinct when faced with an enemy is to sneak around behind it, yes you can hold you own in a firefight, but I will never fight alongside you after we find dad, I'm not going to die because you can't handle grey area." She finished, walking away, towards the Museum entrance.

Joseph was left shell shocked by that as Ben tried to follow Elissa with Charon only a few footsteps away from him, as always.

Joseph fell back against the railing of the catwalk they were on, the area was safe, and as Elissa had just declared at him, she could handle as many Freaks in straight combat as he could skulking around.

He opened his Pip Boy and went across to the notes section of, he scrolled down to all his old photos, from when he and the others were Seventeen, it was one of the few virtual photos he had seen in his life that still had collar in it, it was from when their collective Seventeen year old birthday, they were all grouped together in the middle with dad to the left, he remembered how happy they had all been, Joseph had begun training to be Vault Security only a few weeks before and Ben was soon to join their father in the Vault Science and medicine department.

Then he noticed something, about Elissa, and just how fake her smile was in the photo, she had been faking it, Joseph realised, and it hit him why, he had been caught in his brother's and his own success to notice that Elissa hadn't found any in anything, and remembered that at the time, she had been relying on the rest of the family for support, hell she seemed to be more comfortable outside the Vault, another minute and Joseph figured out what it all came back too.

Killing.

She hadn't even reacted to killing raiders around the Springvale school, because that was where she had found her talent, the first thing other than brute strength that she had succeeded at was killing, of course that would be what she enjoyed, she enjoyed killing other human beings, maybe it hadn't always been there, but from the way she had been behaving around death the last week and a half since leaving the Vault that she liked it.

Joseph shook with realisation.

He couldn't let Ben fall to that, He Wouldn't. Joseph thought clutching his Magnum, he wouldn't let that happen.

Before Elissa could try and talk to him Ben walked forward with Charon two steps behind him, he and Charon cleared a path through the Supermutants while Elissa covered the two with her assault rifle.

They managed to clear the first floor, Ben gagged on the stench the mutants had created, Ben turned in to a large room that seemed to be serving as a control room for Project Purity, another cartridge of shotgun shells and a minor graze wound on his calf and that room was clear of Freaks, and Joseph approached a recording device, it had a memory widget inside of it, Ben's heart leapt for a second, thinking Dad might have left it there for them.

"Boss, if it pleases you, I could clear the lower floors and the sub-basement of this building, I have passed through this facility before, and I would have an advantage on my own." Charon said raising his Shotgun barrel in the air.

Ben shook his head looking at the Widget before turning to Charon grinning and said "One day you're going to tell me all about where you have been and what you have been doing the last two hundred years, go ahead and clear the rest of the building if you think your capable." Ben said as Joseph walked in, he looked shaken.

As Charon bushed past him gun in hand, and when Ben locked eyes with his brother, he saw the eyes of someone who'd bubble had just been burst.

"Ben, we need to talk about Elissa, she's dangerous." Joseph said shakily

Charon walked down the metal stairs down to the sub-basement of the facility, he had meant what he said to the boy, he had passed through this building once before, a long time before back when Paradise Falls was still a small time gang of highly experienced, highly specialised raiders, who occasionally took proper contracts to collar certain survivors, it was within his time with them that they became Full-time slavers, they had been chasing down a specific mark who was worth a lot of money to a certain buyer in 'The Institute'.

They had spent weeks chasing the man through hill and dale for almost two weeks all across the Wasteland until at last they had cornered him inside the monument, as it had been before the scientists had set up the huge metal railings that lined now lined the facility, when they chased him down into the building, they had Charon go down into the Sub-basement, deciding he was he most likely to bring down the mark non-lethally, when he worked his way through the unknown, vacant corridors, it wasn't long before he found the mark in his tattered Surgeons coat.

He didn't put up any kind of fight, that would have been quite difficult given that his head was under a pool of water, the ark had drowned himself to death his tattered clothes torn further to restrain himself from escaping his deliberate suicide.

Next to the pool of water he had scratched into the concrete floor the words:

SELF DETIRMINATION IS NOT A MAILFUNCTION

That was the man's suicide note, the knife was a simple kitchen knife taken from a Pre-war house, the rust on it showed it had come with the house, and their was the mans Weapon, a perfect and well cared for Shotgun, It had the mark of the Institute at multiple points on the gun, and it looked like something produced by them, for all their claims to be the most sophisticated civilisation in the world no one could match them in terms of weapon technology.

It had been a long time since he had been impressed by a weapon, a weapon was a tool, the man who held it was the part that impressed him and that was rare enough when it happened, but this one had, he picked up the Shotgun, the hand grip and the pump seemed to mold around his hands, it seemed to be capable of firing multiple types of shells, and their turned out to be exchangeable parts for the grip and different sights hidden in the butt of the rifle, that was plain extravagant but a very useful kind of extravagant.

He tore himself out of his near reverence of the weapon, he shook himself back to his normal 'to-business' mentality, he adjusted this new prize's bandolier to his large torso, the others would find a way to blame the "Zombie" amongst them for the failure, he took the knife away from the pool and used it too slit the man's throat careful to make sure the blood didn't spill onto him so it would look like a suicide that the idiots up top could believe, they may have been decent shots, but they had no idea about anything beyond a fight.

He stood up, and walked away back up the stairs, there was no way out of this, it looked like Charon had killed him, he would use the knife to show the man had killed himself, by cutting his own throat, that would have to convince them of suicide, even them, if they didn't believe him, then they would conclude Charon had deliberately murdered their two thousand cap prize.

And they would kill him for that.

He walked up the stairs, he was competent in his own abilities, but he wasn't sure if he could kill the other 5 of his team simultaneously in a draw, once he was back to his boss, who had stayed in Paradise Falls, he could just say the Mark had killed the team, with the help of that all powerful Shotgun, before Charon brought him down with his own shotgun.

He got up the stairs, and opened the security door to the ground floor of the memorial, and saw the five fighters all watching him, eying the knife in his hands.

He didn't bother waiting for them to ask, he handed the knife to a grizzled man that had assumed leadership of the team, Charon didn't remember his name.

"The Guy had killed himself, this knife, dragged the blade across his own throat rather then be captured.' Charon reported dully, but very attentive to the guns being holstered.

"Killed himself… well that's strange, where'd you get that gun?" the man asked in his voice that was almost as sand papered as Charon's own.

"Found it on him, laid out, method was precise, matches the attire as a doctor." Charon said his usual directness helping to sell the partial lie.

"Give it here." One of the group said.

"It's mine, the boss told me I had as much authority as an of you on the job, I have more claim too the weapon then any of you." Charon said speaking in defiance was something he had only now remembered was possible for him, and would forget again as soon as this encounter was over.

"That sure is a shame Charon, you were a decent shot but now you've cost us our Mark, least were taking is that Gun, and your-" But Charon cut the man off by shoulder charging past him, knocking him to the ground as another ones pistol fire whizzed past him and took chunks out the wall.

He ran around another corner and ran into the lobby that had once been the waiting room for the gift shop main counter, he took the Shotgun of his back, there was only one way they could get too him now, if he could just cover the door, then with his skills and this gun, he was sure he could eliminate the other five.

'_Make that four'_ Charon thought blasting one stupid enough to run around the corner.

He crouched and through a loose piece of wood and through it, the wood was tagged by three of the 15 bullets that hit them.

He retreated further into the room through the shadows, it was incredibly risky but it paid off and he could see their position, two with assault rifles were ducking behind an overturned desk covering the door, the one with a Barrel-fed shotgun and the other with a machete were the other two remaining members of their group, they would probably be advancing on both sides of the wall, he remembered the grenades that was in a hard-case on his thigh, he removed one and put the pin in between his white, misaligned teeth, and focused, these were men in a rush, not the cold deliberate actors of a planned ambush, he tried to hear the footsteps of the two other men, it wasn't hard.

He was right in his assumption, it was with cold meticulousness that he pulled out the pin on he grenade and to his pride, it landed right in the middle of the room the four survivors were in.

A moment of panic from his assailants and the grenade went off with a resounding BOOM, when the dust had settled he could see the machete the arm that it belonged too had flown into the greeting room along with a leg, he could see that the two with assault rifles had been thrown backwards against the wall, one impaled on an unfortunate upright shard of wood, the other was screaming in pain, he was missing both of his legs and was bleeding from a head wound, neither were a threat, the only remaining adversary was the one with the shotgun.

He wasn't completely sure that that one was taken care off, he advanced slowly, crouching, he turned the corner and aimed at waist level, he would go round the corner and kill he remaining man.

That plan hit a snag when the survivor (_Rut. Charon remembered his name)_ came around the corner a second before Charon was prepared and it was on reflex that he had dropped the priceless shotgun and grabbed his opponents weapon, he kneed Rut's lower regions but the grizzled former leader blocked it with his thigh and while Charon focused on maintaining his balance when Rut forced the shotgun into Charon's stomach, Charon just escaped being winded and twisted the gun out of Rut's hands.

It went flying across the room and landed close to the legless man, just outside of his reach.

Rut took out a knife, "TEAR YOU APART." The brute promised.

Charon took up a fighting stance, this wouldn't be fun.

Rut lunged at him overhead the knife cutting through the air and Charon dodged back grabbing the man's arm and pulling him forward he spun himself around and pushed his elbow painfully into the leather of Rut's body armour, before he could recover Charon vice gripped the mans arm before flipping the huge man over his shoulder and onto his back.

Charon went to stomp down on the mans head but Rut moved at just the wrong moment flipping himself onto all-fours, Rut grabbed at Charon leg and managed to pull him so he lost balance and went to the ground on his back, Rut moved faster than Charon could recover, he had lost his knife and put his hands around Charon's throat.

Charon took four seconds before his instincts kicked in and he yanked his own knife free off its single buckle holster, and jammed it into Rut's stomach, the vice around his throat weakened, the second stab didn't go more than a centimetre deep but it was enough, one of Rut's hands moved to his stomach, Charon dropped his knife and punched the grizzled man in the bleeding wound.

Rut collapsed sideways, and Charon didn't give him a chance to recover, he grabbed a nearby rock and brought it down on Rut's head as hard as he could, he picked his knife back up and positioned the point of it on Rut's temple, before wordlessly bringing down the rock on the metal pommel of the knife, driving it completely through the grizzled old slavers head and back out the top of his head.

He did the same to all the other raiders, not for cruelty or that he took any kind of joy from It but for simple professionalism, before laying out the bodies in a structured order and took some kind of personal effect to prove to the Boss that they were in fact dead, he took something particularly personal from the dead mark.

"Damn good shot you must have been." Charon said to the lab coat wearing corpse, taking out a 10mm pistol. "To take out all these slavers, guess you lost in the end, I made your death painful for that didn't I?" Charon said rehearsing his story before shooting the corpse three times in the torso and a few times in a leg, he couldn't leave any loose ends when reporting his lie.

Charon snapped out of his memory realizing what he was doing, he had taken out his pistol and was shooting a dead Supermutant in the same room as from all those years ago where he had found that poor dead mark. His leather armour was spattered with blood and gunpowder was in the air.

He walked through those familiar halls finding a continuous trail of dead mutants, he realised what had happened, he had slipped into a trance in his memories of combat, whilst his real body had gone on a killing rampage through the tunnels, this wasn't the first time this had happened, when Ahzrukhal had forced him to be examined by Doctor Barrows, Barrows had theorized that the reason for these trances was that it happened to Ghouls who were going feral, that seemed unlikely given how long go they had started.

He looked down at the Shotgun he was holding, he still missed the one he had taken from their mark, he only possessed it for a short time before his Boss had taken it from him, he didn't know where it was but he still missed that shotgun, just firing it had bought him joy.

Charon walked back up the stairs to the first floor, after he gave Ben a full report, irritated at the level of concern Ben had shown when he told him about the trance, he did not let it show, he never let anything show, not to those still breathing.

It was another hour till the Boss told him that they were moving out, for an old car repair station, '_Smith Casies' _.

As they exited the memorial, Charon looked around at the people he was with, he had nearly died when his team had betrayed him, he didn't think anything like that would happen with these three. The Boss was of a good type, as was Joseph and neither were a liability, hell both had even been useful, more then could be said for the rest of the evil bastards he had worked for over the years.

But he couldn't say that Elissa was a good person, she was a good shot, but every one of those raiders had been too, and the reason why he had been unprepared for that fight was because he trusted the sense of cohesion the band had built up.

And because of that he didn't bother to profile how to take them down, but he wasn't making that same mistake, he looked at the girl at the front of the group, and Joseph walking to the right, and Ben behind him a bit to the right finishing the movement formation they had fallen into.

And he began trying to come up with a plan to take every one of the group's members with as little ease as possible, trying to account for as many variables as he could in his approach.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Joseph threw a few more lumps of dead wood into the small pit fire that they had built into the brick fire-place, they had taken refuge in a two story burned-out pre-war that had been occupied by a few raiders, Ben and Charon went in first clearing the small area inside with their shotguns, Ben came out a few minutes later asking for help clearing out the bodies, Ben was showing them through the first floor when Charon _walked_ down the stairs, noticeably bloody compared to Ben, he was dragging a corpse, he said that the raiders didn't belong to any gang so they probably didn't have to worry about any kind of back up, but advised they keep the fire low.

It was early into the night but everyone was tired, they had travelled halfway across the Wasteland to _Smith Casies Garage, _they had dealt with multiple Supermutant raiding groups and many encampments, according to Charon and the Broadcasts they had listened to, this was heavy raider territory in the south-west, and even heavier Supermutant territory to the north resulting in even larger battles between the two forces of sadists, one of the most infamous battles supposedly being in 2243, a battle that had scared the land and almost wiped out both sides, giving the Wasteland a steady and uneasy peace for almost eight years, before the surviving raiders had regrouped lacking their leaders, Charon didn't know about the Supermutants side and why they had taken so long to recover, Elissa usually pretended to be disinterested but everyone appreciated the stories he told them when requested, it was the few times he showed any kind of personality, that story was particularly riveting as he had witnessed the fight through the scope of a Sniper Rifle, taking shots at both sides from a distance where neither side could retaliate.

Ben was chopping up meat and skewering it on shaved firewood, Joseph had taken down the two molerats that was being served up, they had all just been taught the best method to skin and husk animals, Elissa had been on lookout duty, still was but he doubted she was taking the duty as seriously as she should have, how the hell did she expect to survive on her own when she didn't take any of the survival skills they were learning seriously?

"Hey, these are ready to cook." Ben said walking over, the meat bits looking better than anything that they had eaten in the Vault, if only because it was different to he 'wholesome' family meals they had been fed in the vault.

A few minutes into cooking the skewers over the grate and Ben decided to ask the question that had bothered him all day.

"So what did you want to say to me the other day?" Ben asked as neutrally as he could.

Joseph paused, went to say something but the words choked in his throat, Charon rustled around upstairs taking mark of anything useful

"You said that she was dangerous, what did you mean by that?" Ben asked flipping the meat.

"Ben, what we do out here, the killing, we do it when its necessary, but that's not how it is with her, her first instinct when faced with any kind of problem, you try to charm your way through it, you never enjoy killing the monsters out here even if they deserve it, I may be worse than you for that, when I kill Muties or the bad guys out here, I get a little jolt, I feel like I'm doing justice." Joseph said not looking away from the kebabs.

Ben crossed his arms, "Joseph, I agree with what you're saying, especially the part about you being worse than Me." He said grinning. "But I don't get what your saying, you think Elissa does enjoy it? You just admitted you do to, what's your problem?"

"It's not the same, she enjoys it because she enjoys it, she's…. she's a sadist, I hate saying it but that's what she is." Joseph said

"You're wrong, it looks that way I know it does, but she's not like that, she's just protecting us, she told me that's why she does it." Ben said shaking his head assuredly

"Protecting us would be shooting people who shoot us, I'm not sure where she got decapitating their corpses and hanging them from the fucking rafters comes into it." Joseph said, angry that Ben wasn't seeing his view.

The door opened and they both wheeled around.

"The fuck are you two doing?" Elissa asked looking at the two of them angrily.

"Having a disagreement." Joseph said taking the four fully cooked Kebabs, he placed them on two plates and said "I'll see if Charon's hungry."

He walked upstairs with an angry step, "Elissa put my Sniper Rifle with the rest of the gear, I want to be on the move tomorrow and the day after without stop, so you best get some sleep." He said bossily.

He found Charon upstairs, pushing bullets into their clips, the loot they had acquired from the raiders piled neatly on the bed, it was mostly alcohol and Chems and ammo, the raiders only had a few salvageable weapons, a handy machete and a knife being the two they would take, Elissa had claimed the Machete and it hung proudly from her hip.

"You described Ahzrukhal as an 'evil bastard', what did he have to do to earn that reputation?" Joseph asked passing him a plate.

* * *

"Did you hear what Joseph was saying about you?" Ben asked taking another Kebab of the fire.

"No, I'm guessing he was warning you that I'm a bat-shit crazy psychopath?" Elissa asked sitting down on against a wall near the fire.

"Just about." Ben said, all he could hear off Charon and Josephs conversation was incoherent muttering, if he couldn't make out their conversation he sincerely doubted they could make out his and Elissa's.

"He told me that he thinks you enjoy killing for its own sake, he seems to think you enjoy it, called you a _Sadist_." Ben said changing to an inquisitorial tone.

"pfft, like I said, that guy just can't get his head around the idea of a Grey Area." Elissa said trying to shrug and grin it off.

"Does grey area include mounting heads on spikes for no reason other than you want to?" Ben asked raising an eyebrow, he was pushing it, but if he got a reaction out of her then he would know the truth.

Elissa didn't bat an eyelash, "I don't have to explain myself to you." She said plainly

"Of course you don't, but doesn't that mean that he's right? Is that why you're leaving?"

"No, I'm just going my own way."

"And is that way down a road of chaos and suffering?" Ben asked reminding himself of old movies he had seen in the Vault and feeling stupid.

"If that's where survival takes me then yes, that's the path I'm going down, good luck with whatever you try and do too survive, until it gets you killed."

"Indeed, it probably will, but I'm going to go down my path, Joseph down his, Charon will guide me, maybe you can find a gang to suit you, Joseph might find a group of Cowboys to get justice for the Wasteland, I think you're doing the wrong thing, and that Joseph needs to get a better perspective, I'm sure you feel similarly and Joseph probably would to, but those are the paths we're taking, and for the first time in our lives, they all lead to a different castle, I just hope that we make the long walk down them." Ben said feeling stupider with every word, however by the end of it Elissa looked like she genuinely believed what he had said.

* * *

"And that's the tale of the Tunnel Howler, I don't know if its fact or fiction, but I've heard it's screeching more than a few times, I've never seen it so I don't know if the rumours of its appearance are true, but I believe its real, that thing will maim you and leave you to bleed out, we ere close to the exit so there was no real worry bout him coming after us, it doesn't like the light, but if you're fighting down there keep your ears open, if you hear it run for the nearest exit, running into the centre of Supermutant filled DC would be safer than stay down there with that thing." Charon finished his story, they had been talking for a good few hours since he came up, Ben and Elissa must have taken watch.

"Wow, how much of that is true?" Joseph asked.

"Most of it, like I said a lot of its rumours, and let's face it, a creature that lives in the darkness that hunts and mauls anyone who makes too much noise in the Metro system is pretty unlikely, once a bored Rivet City security team went into the Metro to try and track down the Monster, even Raiders let them through just because the wanted to know if that thing is real or not, the team went between Rivet City and Underworld's Metro station clearing it as they went, then they didn't return one day, so a week later Ahzrukhal sent me to find them, I did, and that's the one time I've seen what that thing does with my own eyes, there were no bullet casings anywhere and the group looked like they had been running away, the gashes in the bodies weren't large enough for it to be a Deathclaw that killed them, and no human could kill those soldiers without them having a chance to fight back." Charon said putting away his gear and sitting down into a more comfortable position.

It was those little hints a Charon's personality, things like shifting in his chair or the way he seemed to enjoy telling of all the things he had seen over the years, those little things about him that hinted that there was more to the man then being a mindless servant.

"Has Three Dog ever talked about any of that?"

"Yes, he mentions the story now and again under his 'Public service announcements' section, loves to embellish the story, tells people that when their down in the Metro or even the sewers that they need to keep all possible noise to a minimum, sound advice wether the thing exists or not, the only comfort you can afford yourself about safety when your down there is that your very unlikely to see Supermutants down there, thy build encampments all exits of the Metro, but they never go into the tunnels themselves, scared maybe." Charon said

"Well glad I know all that now, anything else you could tell me about life out here? You know dire things I won't be able to survive without?" Joseph asked yawning.

"I can only think of one other thing." Charon said getting up and checking to see if the others could hear them.

"What is it?" Joseph asked leaning forward curiously

"I don't know if you figured this out yet but no one out alone in the wastes is that polite, don't trust them, if the save your life from Deathclaws it's probably just because they didn't want it to digest your gear, no one really wants to help you, there just trying to use you so they can survive another day." Charon finished.

Joseph nodded, thanked Charon for the good conversation, and went to get some sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

I Chapter 18

Joseph walked out of the burned house, Ben, Elissa and Charon all following after him, it was only another ten kilometres, it was dawn, if they travelled all day then they could make it to the garage by late afternoon.

They would find him

* * *

Joseph gazed at the building ahead of them, he looked at it through the sights of his BOS Sniper Rifle, when he had used it to fire on mutants from the top of the Washington monument he had only seen the Supermutants drop and blood misting out, but out in the Wasteland he had seen the damage it did, it could cut straight through any kind of armour at any range and do lethal damage to the wearer, he hadn't tested it on Power Armour yet but he was sure it would blow right through the helmets, if not the rest of it.

He sighted what he was looking for on the building, an old broken metal sign, words were missing from it but he could make out what it said, '_Smith Casies Car repair'._

He lowered his rifle, grinning, he stoped when he caught sight of something near the building, the sandbags, large canvas tent and the old green military supply truck let him in on the fact that it was a military encampment, or at least it had been before the bombs fell, marvellous that it had made it through, it looked like no one had touched the area yet, he put his eye back through the rifle and identified why the area had not been pillaged yet.

All over the camp lay mutilated bodies, fresh carcases of scavengers, or raiders, one or two seemed to have been blown to bits unlike the others, which were marked with the frequent pattern f machinegun fire, Joseph didn't think any operation left in the Wasteland could continuously defend the area with biting into the supplies, then it came into range, A Sentry Bot wheeled round the corner, its parts in disrepair, its armour marked and the green paint and stars of the American military scratched away, it rolled away with no real objective, it seemed to be patrolling.

He signalled the others and pointed out the Sentry Bot.

Joseph kept watch while the others came up with the plan, it had a Minigun built into one arm and a rocket launcher in the other, he overheard the word 'Salvageable' and realised Ben was thinking off trying to repurpose the thing rather than kill It outright.

Joseph sighed, for all they knew Dad was just inside the next building, and they were talking about re formatting the shooting preferences of a damned robot.

He shook his head, and took aim, the next time the Bot came round the corner he tried to identify any kind of weak-spot on its back, the head like bubble on top seemed like too obvious a target, despite the glow it emitted just visible in the Wasteland sun.

He saw something on it back, it was small and looked like an access panel to the inside of the Sentry Bot, that would be what he would shoot for the next time it came around.

So he waited, sill listening to the conversation going on behind him, the Sentry Bot came round the corner scanning for threats, when it turned its back to them Joseph held his breath, took aim and fired at he little green panel, the Bullet hit its mark, it managed to break through the armour, but didn't make it to the sensitive machinery inside.

Joseph fired again as the thing spun around, he made a bigger hole now the size of a mans head but the sensors and such were still intact.

The metal monstrosity had turned around now, and its machine gun was revving up, Joseph ducked down behind a large rock next to him, the Sentry Bot would have to fire upwards at them but with the mini-gun it had the would be dead they as son as they tried to return fire.

Joseph slipped down, he leant the Sniper Rifle against a rock, and pulled his hunting rifle from his bag bringing it into hand, by now the others had joined him, Ben cursing him.

"Boss, do you give me permission to act on my own initiative?" Charon asked holding his shotgun, his voice portraying not a shred of panic.

Ben raised his head and looked at the Bot riveting their cover with 5mm rounds.

"Yeah, but what are you going to do?" Ben asked ducking back down.

"If I run out there, I can make it to those sandbags before it can get me, then you draw back its fire with your Rifles so it forgets about me, then I can sneak up to hit it in its innards, Joseph, ill need your revolver to do enough damage without compromising my mobility." Charon said peering at the Sentry Bot, it didn't appear the thing would ever run out of ammo.

Joseph handed Charon the Revolver and he got ready to run.

Elissa had an assault Rifle in hand, Ben had a Vault Pistol since his shotgun was useless at this range, and Joseph had his hunting rifle.

Charon nodded his head, and ran like a bat out of hell.

The bullets were inches away from him every step he took, it was two seconds before they stood up and started firing on the Bot, it turned its arm towards them, its left arm, Joseph took a second before he realised what it was doing.

"Hit the Dirt!" He yelled grabbing Ben and pulling his brother with him as he dived away from the cliff face.

The rock they were crouching behind only a few seconds earlier was hit with the explosive force of three grenades.

* * *

Charon slid into cover behind the Sandbags, he was fifteen feet away from the Sentry bot, as soon as they had drawn its fire, he heard gunshots, from _their_ weapons, he waited another second, he heard the machines arms groaning as they moved.

"Hit the Dirt!" he heard Josephs voice yell.

Charon knew this was his chance, Sentry Bots had to stop all other functions when they fired a missile, or at least… No they had to or else…

He sprinted forward with Joseph's gun in hand, he got behind the Sentry Bot, It knew he was there, he pushed the barrel of the Magnum into the large holes Joseph had blown open and emptied its cylinder into the sensitive machinery within.

The Sentry bot fell in half completely blown out from the inside, he looked over to the cliff that had been hit with the missile.

If the Boss wasn't okay, then…..

* * *

Joseph forced his eyes open, he could feel his body, coated in scratches and bruises from where he had hit the ground, his body covered in the dirt and sand that had risen with the explosion.

He didn't feel like anything was lodged in him, and he didn't feel the warm and wet of blood, he blinked at the light and groaned in pain as he turned himself over to get up he could swear that all he wanted to do was sleep.

When he rolled himself over he saw that Ben had done the same, a small scratch deep along his face.

fsx"So, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this." Ben said flirtatiously at him, propping himself up on an elbow.

Joseph snorted, "Wishing I was dead." Joseph said as he stood up, groaning with the agony the movement caused him, how come Ben always dodged all the pain.

He turned to look at where they were sitting, doing his best to keep low.

He saw the cliff face where they had been sitting before the missile hit.

_Elissa_

The thought rang through him like someone had used his brain as a gong.

He looked around and saw Elissa, she had been blown clear by the explosion, and was laying unconscious, her head was bleeding from the back, it looked bd.

"Shit" Ben said now beside him, Ben ran down to her followed by Joseph, all other worries forgotten,.

"Is she okay?" Joseph asked turning her over.

"I don't know…. Joseph, you and Charon clear that garage, we need to get her inside, I can take a look at her, she's going to be okay." Ben said lifting her head up.

"How can you possibly know that?" Joseph said looking down the barrel of his rifle at the now destroyed Sentry Bot, and Charon rushing towards them.

"Trust me, she's going to be alright." Ben said his voice a lot less then convincing.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Joseph stared at the unoccupied 'Tranquillity Lounger', The Robo-brains had forced them to remove all of their gear, and put on blue Vault jumpsuits identical to the one he had worn all his life except the _101_ on the back was replaced with a _112_.

Charon looked down at him from a platform that extended out from the wall, Ben had given Charon orders to watch Joseph the entire time he was in the Tranquillity lounger, and watch in case anything went wrong, Joseph didn't understand what could go wrong, according to the Robo-brain all he had to do was sit down in the machine and try too clear his head.

The Pod opened up, and he was prompted to sit down.

Elissa was upstairs, in a room across from where Charon was standing, Ben was trying to close the head wound she had suffered, "She will probably have a concussion too." Ben had told him.

They had considered themselves lucky that the Vault, hidden inside _'Smith Casies', _had a medical facility, Ben had put her down on the table and had done all he could for Elissa while Joseph patched himself up, normally he wouldn't have bothered but Ben had insisted he do so before he went into the Pod.

Joseph stepped up into the Pod, sat down and leaned back, immediately he felt a sense of relief and tiredness, he closed his eyes barley realising that this wasn't normal, he had slept not twelve hours ago.

He wrenched his eyes open just as two needles jabbed into his neck, the Pod closed as a Screen slid down in front of him showing him a loop of clips of some kind of one way street from before the great war.

It started out just giving him a view of different houses and people, but soon, he began to see the images as though he were viewing the images first hand.

Then the images gained colour, in another moment the pictures looped more quickly, before their was a flash of light causing Joseph to shut his eyes.

* * *

When he opened them again he found himself in a world completely devoid of colour, he gasped.

It was the street he had been looking at through the machine, as he tried to figure out what was going on, the answer seemed to become less and less important.

He felt strange, he was less strong then he was, he didn't feel like he was seeing as far as he could before, but before what?

_DAD_

The thought and through him and obliterated the sense of normalcy that had been developing over the last few minutes, he was here to find his father and he had too di that now.

He forced himself up from the park bench he had been sitting at and walked over to one of the shining grey cars, he looked in the window, and gasped at his reflection, he understood now why he had been feeling strange.

He looked exactly like he had on his tenth birthday party, his blond hair was completely buzzed off as it had been, he was normally on the same height with Ben, which meant being taller then everyone they met, with the exception of Charon, but now he was shorter then he could even remember being.

His arms were small and the rest of his body was undeveloped, this was a bad situation, then he realised that his Pip-boy was gone, and that he couldn't turn off the cheerful music that was echoing through the world, then he figured it out, this was Hell.

"Hello sport, say Betty was asking after you, best no keep her waiting." A cheery voice said behind him, he felt a firm hand come down on his shoulder, it hurt, but it didn't alarm him, everything was fine here wasn't it?

Joseph turned around, trying to remember why he was here, he forced a smile onto his face and walked towards the island in the middle of the road, he knew that's where Betty was, gosh she was such a good friend!

He saw Betty up ahead in a nice Pre-War Dress watering a-

_Pre-war?_

'_What did that even mean? What war?' _Joseph thought walking closer to his friend.

"Hey sleepy, I managed to water the entire garden in the time it took you to get here! D'ya wanna play a game?" Betty asked in a sweet, sing-song voice.

"Sure, what's the game?" Joseph asked his voice coming out high pitched and cute like it used to- DID –EXCEPT YOUR PERRCEIVED REALITY—the words blared in his mind but were lost amongst the bliss of the simulation.

"Well the goal of the game is to make Timmy Neusban cry, that kid is such a girl it should be easy! Go on it will be fun." Betty said giving him the most charming little girl smile he had ever received.

Joseph nodded "Easy!" he said running off towards Timmy, that mothers boy would be easy, he had heard Mrs Neusban and Mrs Simpson talking about sending him off to military school, there would be something about it nearby, he just had to find it and show it to Timmy, tell him his parents were actually doing it and he would cry like a waterfall!

'_But isn't this wrong'_ Joseph thought stopping. He shook his head, he wouldn't let Betty think he was a wuss too.

Joseph walked into the Neusban house and began searching for some evidence that Timmy's parents were indeed sending him off to military school, it didn't take long given that a brochure for the School was just sitting there on the table.

Joseph walked back outside to find Timmy, also fairly easy, he was attempting to sell Lemonade from a small lemonade stand.

Joseph simply walked up, and said in a true child's voice "Hey, you're being shipped of."

"What?" Timmy said in a voice of annoyance.

"Well, I heard your mother telling your father about it, she asked e to tell you, doesn't even want to look at you anymore apparently, here's the brochure for the school their sending you too, Check it out!"

"What the heck?" Timmy said his eyes welling up, when he read the paper, he screamed "MOMEY!" and ran away crying and blubbering.

Joseph watched Timmy run away and giggled to himself, that was fun, but he couldn't help but feel a little bad, still funny though.

Joseph walked back across to the roundabout to talk to Betty, she was going to love this.

"I saw that, Timmy ran away bawling, good idea to tell him about military school, brilliant!" Betty said her voice oozing approval.

'_You seem to have a knack for finding clever solutions, it says so in the Overseers Profile of you, but obviously your not of this Vault, where are you from? Vault 101? What was the experiment going on there, can I recall? Yes I'm correct, you were part of the 'Vault Conformist Personality Tests', though you probably didn't know that, perhaps I ought to remove the proverbial gag and allow you to speak, there you go, now, who are you?' _A suddenly deep voice with a heavy German accent came out of betty's mouth, Joseph's mind reeled as he suddenly understood what was going on, he had entered the Tranquillity Pod to find his father, damn it all what had he gotten himself into?

"I'm… I'm trying to find my father, like you said, Vault 101 was home until he left, I used to be-"

"_Never mind telling me, its much easier to just read everything I need to know about you, much less of the meaningless prattle tends to be included, it says you were a security guard, pretty good at keeping the peace, but defiant about taking orders, your reasons for joining were… 'to effect change from within?' so you're an ideologue?' the voice asked_

"No, I might have used to be but now I understand that no matter how much I tried down there, I never would have ended the corruption down there." Joseph said folding his scrawny arms.

"_Yes, yes, yes, here's something much more interesting, you murdered a woman down there, self-defence apparently, blew her brains out, not too surprising given that you were the top marksman and pugilist that had ever joined the security team, what's the point of having a skill if you can't use them?" The voice asked amused_

"How do you know all of this? What the hell are you reading?" Joseph exclaimed.

"_Notes taken by your Overseer, what you didn't think he would take notes on every time you picked your nose for personality defects? I'm amazed he didn't lock you up after you murdered miss Beatrice, Lady-killer. But I suppose you have been good enough to answer all of my questions, ask me two questions, and I promise to answer them as best I can._" He voice said, as Betty's body continued to water the plants.

"Do you know where my father is?" Joseph asked first, grabbing at the opportunity.

"Well… I will put it like this, do you see that Dog over there? His name is Doc, and he is a very loyal, very smart Dog." Betty said grinning.

Joseph opened his mouth, closed it, and walked over to the Dog, he looked a lot like some of the other dogs he had seen in the Wasteland, except Doc's fur seemed to have an almost blue and yellow tint too it. 'Oh dear god.'

"Dad?" Joseph asked reaching out to the Dog.

The Dog barked back, almost affirmingly, he licked Joseph's hand.

"I'm going to get you back dad, just you wait I will get us out of this" Joseph said standing and walking back over too Betty, or whoever the hell this really was.

"Who are you?" Joseph asked plainly.

"_Good question, my name is Doctor Stanisluas Braun, I was the leading scientist behind a lot if not all of Vault-tecs scientific experimentation, I am the leader of this Vault, and its residents are mine to play with, play well and I might just let you and your Father leave."_ Braun said his accent coating every word.

"What do you want done, tell me plainly." Joseph said irritated, he had just found Dad and he couldn't even do anything!

* * *

Joseph walked over to the computer terminal that was flickering in and out of existence, he was disgusted by what he had to do, breaking up a perfect marriage, killing a beautiful, doting house wife, to finally butchering every single resident of the simulation with a knife, wearing the very well articulated costume of '_The Pint-sized Slasher', _some kind of Urban Legend from before the War, he was coated in their blood, but he would make it all right, I her final moments an old lady who he had thought delirious, told him about a failsafe inside the abandoned house, that would save the residents, by killing them all permantly, and putting the outside Braun's sadistic control.

He entered the pass word, and the words flashed across the entire screen:

FAILSAFE INITILISED, WARNING, IMMENSE DANGER, HAVE A NICE DAY

Joseph knew he had done the right thing, he looked down at his blood streaked clothes, '_The ends do justify the means, that's the only truth in this cruel life_.' He thought as he walked out of the building.

He could feel his body returning to its true form, as I was outside the Vault, his blood coated clothing being replaced with the spattered and torn Vault security suit, multiple bullet holes all through it, some of the metal shards still inside the Black Vest. His now dirty blonde hair falling past his ears, the rough beard taking its proper place, and all the pain from the injuries he had accumulated in the three weeks since leaving the vault came back with a vengeance.

As he walked a squad of Chinese Commandos seemed to phase into existence, and began firing on the regenerated civilians, he didn't give them a second look, the world had gained colour, and he could real green trees for the first time in his life, but he couldn't care, he knew Dad would be waiting for him on the outside.

"WAIT, DO YOU REALISE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, YOU HAVE KILLED **EVERYONE**, NOW I'LL BE STUCK IN THIS HELL ALONE, FOREVER!" Betty yelled chasing him, she grabbed him, only she had been replaced with the body of a 40 year old man in a lab coat.

"I'm in control now, and this is all for Mrs Simpson, for Mr Simpson, Mr Rockbell, Mrs Rockbell, The Neusbans, the old Lady and her husband." Joseph said calmly shaking off her hand.

He walked towards the immaculate door out of the simulation, turned the handle, and walked clean out of hell.

* * *

The Pod lid extended upwards, the needles jabbed out of his neck, the restrains snapped back and the screens that had been surrounding his head wheeled back, he sat still for a moment, the chair was quite comfortable.

He shook his head to rouse himself into alertness.

He looked around, there was another empty pod on the other side of the room, was that the one Dad had been in?

Joseph bolted out of the Pod, wincing at the pain, he hobbled as he ran up the stairs and through the winding Vault Hallways to get to the Infirmery, thats where Dad had to be, he would want to check on Elissa right?

When he got to the Infirmary the pressure door was closed, but he could see in through the Window, Dad and Ben were both crouched over operating on Elissa,

"Dad" Joseph managed to gasp.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Joseph hobbled down the sand dune, Ben had ordered Charon to support him while he was wounded, they needed food as the Vault did not have any stored, his father, after they had been reunited Joseph was rushed out of the room so they could "operate" on Elissa, he didn't know what they meant by that, it looked like she had only had minor injuries, severe but still nothing to worry about too much.

He was hurting still from the fight with the Sentry Bot, the wounds hurting a lot more now that he had lost his sense of purpose, they had found Dad, but now what? What were they to do now? Could they live out here for the rest of their lives? Did Dad have a reason for coming out here?

Joseph shook his head, wincing at the pain it caused him, he had to find food, Charon was on his immediate left, looking out for anything they could kill, there had to be Mole Rats around here somewhere, maybe some Bloatflies's, hell he would rather take on a Yao Guai with his bare hands then try and go back empty handed, he turned to Charon.

"You got any idea's about how were going to hunt anything out here? We're sitting ducks out in these open plains." Joseph said turning just enough to bring his companion into view.

Charon turned to look at him, he did not say anything, but guided Joseph over to a small cluster of rocks, he helped or rather pushed Ben into a seating position.

"Sit calm, and wait here, watch for threats through your Sniper Rifle, I'll go get a few Bloat flies, that should be enough If we cook it correctly, if it pleases you, you could come along, but I might have an easier time without you, all due respect." Charon said as unshaken as ever.

Joseph looked at Charon for a moment, in the two weeks Joseph had known him Charon had never once underestimated himself or shown a lack of respect for his prey.

Joseph nodded and reclined on the rocks slightly, he had found a leather duster that had come to be his blanket, now he wished for it to act as a cushion.

Charon nodded, "Don't get complacent, especially out here, and alone." He said before marching off, shotgun in hand.

* * *

Joseph turned the spit around again, he knew how to cook bloat fly meat but he still didn't want to take the risk, well he thought it was bloat fly, well actually, maybe it was Mole Rat, or hell, it could even be Dog meat for all he knew, Charon hadn't specified what he had gotten it from.

Charon was watching the main entrance while Joseph cooked, allowing the smoke to escape through a hole in the Garage roof.

"Do you think that we should bring some down to them?" Joseph asked idly, he wasn't expecting an answer, Charon never broke his own concentration while he was on guard.

So with a feeling of uncertainty Joseph walked down the steps and through the Vault to the Infirmary.

The Shutters on the window had been drawn, so he couldn't see anything going on inside the room, he pushed the chime button on the door control to let them know he was trying to enter.

The pressure door wrenched open and he nearly walked into Ben, he was wearing a doctors scrubs, they were bloodied.

"What is it?" Ben asked, he sounded far more stressed then Joseph thought Ben was capable of being.

"Well, we're just wondering if every things okay, you've been in there a long time with her, is she all right?" Joseph asked tenderly

Ben didn't answer for a moment.

"Yeah, she should be fine, we're going to have to carry her though, Dad's been explaining everything too me, we will be ready to get underway as soon as you are, we'll get Charon to carry her." Ben said washing his hands.

"Oh and the Water here is purified, I don't know where it's coming from but we should fill up our Water Bottles while we have the chance, it blows that there isn't any Rad-Away in a medical bay, were all getting dangerously close to 200 Rads." Ben said almost starting to babble.

"Didn't we cover this? Radiation won't be the thing that kills us." Joseph said folding his arms and grinning slightly.

"Maybe, maybe I will, but it will make you sick, leave you too weak to fight back, that's how it kills us, that's why I think it's dangerous." Ben said fixing Joseph with a look he had never seen Ben wear before.

Joseph sobered, " I get you, it just… never mind, I'll go ready or stuff to go, suppose we can leave in an hour, lighten up a bit." He said walking away.

Ben turned back around to the room, he wouldn't let Joseph know, and Elissa wouldn't be able to figure it out, she had been minutes away from dying before Dad had shown up to help stabilize her, he didn't know why, but he just didn't want to see Joseph react to that information.

What had amazed him when he found it was just how any Bullet wounds she had, wounds that she hadn't let him see for whatever reason, wounds that were showing signs of infection, he would have to treat these every time they set down for the day otherwise they would advance and she could die.

He had realised then how strong she must be to have been in this much pain and never once complained, why hadn't she told him?

And that question would come back to him far more then he originally thought it would.

* * *

Joseph sat down carefully on top off the old rafters, he had a Sniper Rifle sitting in his lap, they were camping in the same house that they had been taking refuge in two days earlier.

Ben had found a Ladder which allowed them up on too the roof, and Joseph had agreed to take first watch, it was 2:00 Am and Joseph sill wasn't tired despite having been walking around up there for almost seven hours, he hadn't encountered any trouble, apart from two Supermutants that had been getting too close to the house, the first round burst out the rifle and Blew the Supermutants head apart completely.

The Second round caught the Second Mutant in the leg as it bent over to grab its fallen ally's Assault Rifle, the Mutant fell forward and the Third round blew a hole from the front of its neck down that almost split the Mutant in half.

Other than that it had been an exceptionally boring shift, he heard the sound of footfalls on the rafters behind him, Charon stood behind him, balancing lightly on the boards.

"I'm here to replace you, your Father and the Boss request you for a conversation, he wants to discuss what happens after we reach your Home in Megaton." Charon said giving off less emotion then usual, if that was possible.

Joseph nodded and walked across the roof towards Charon, he handed him his Sniper Rifle, muttering "take care of it." And stepped down the ladder.

Joseph put down the collar on the leather duster that he had been using for warmth, Elissa was still unconscious and they had laced her out on the floor, hoping for some kind of response before they left the next day, it had been an unsafe journey back to the house they had stayed in before finding Dad, the next stop was Megaton.

The movement formation they had formed had gone to hell with one being too busted up too fight, and Elissa needing to be carried by Charon, the only person who could still defend the group was Ben who was tired out of his mind, and Dad, who was decent at sneaking past enemies, couldn't shoot a target to save his own life.

It was a downright miracle they had survived, the fact that they hadn't encountered a single raiding party beggared belief.

Joseph walked through the front room and into the 'kitchen', Joseph found the two of them there, sitting around the table like they had so long ago in the Vault it was almost quaint.

He took his coat off and hung it over the back of a chair, he sat down so that his Father was in front of him and Ben was too his left.

"Joseph, Joseph." James said shaking his head.

"Dad, its about time we talked about all of this, what-"

"It's not a talk, he just wants you to listen to his explanation, he just finished with me, trust me, please hold all questions till the end of the tour and shit." Ben said, he sounded extremely tired.

"I, But Dad… Alright." Joseph said nodding slowly

"Thank you, son, I know I owe you a lot of answers, I hope my explanation covers those." His Father said in a voice shockingly deprived of emotion.

"Right." Joseph said leaning his head on his hand

"Straight to point, the reason I left the Vault was because I thought you three would be able to survive down there without me, and that must have been true given that you survived out here. But that's not why I left, I left because I had work to finish, work that would save thousands of lives." James said

"Project Purity." Joseph offered

"Yes, if I could succeed where my team and I failed all those years ago, then just imagine the result, endless amounts of free purified water, that wasn't just clear of irradiation, but would be completely devoid of the dirt and stones you find in Megatons water supply." James said an inventor's gleam in his eye.

"Free? For the entire Wasteland, but why risk it all for that?

"Because, your mother used to believe in the Project far more then I did, now, fulfilling it is the only way I can try and honour her memory is to finish what we started." James said.

"But why come out here and go so far? Alone? You knew we were out here didn't you?" Ben asked speaking for the first time since Joseph had sat down. "Because… this is just…. This is just something I have to do on my own, I cannot explain it, maybe I'm not capable of doing it by myself, but I had to try." James said weakly.

"Why? Do you have some kind of death wish?" Joseph asked gravel coming into his voice.

"No, I simply had to do this, we will be in Megaton within a day wont we?" James asked

"That's the plan."

"I will wait until Elissa recovers before I move again, then I set out of the gates and back to Rivet City, see if any members of the old science team are willing to join me again, I'm not entirely convinced that even a single person will help, and if I'm right then and no one is willing and able to help than I will do it myself." James said looking at the ground with a sigh.

There was a silence around the table for a few minutes.

"How long could it take to get the Project up and running?" Ben asked finally

"I don't know, if I can convince Madison and her team then maybe a few months or less, if we can get the aid of the Brotherhood of Steel then it would be a matter of weeks." James said tenting his hands.

"Don't forget us." Ben said smiling.

James looked up.

"You will have our help every step of the way, we're all a pretty damn good shot by now, and I am an intelligent man if I do say so myself, Joseph can handle anything long range or short, same with Elissa, anything you need we could retrieve, anything that tries to threaten the Project then we could take it out three times over." Ben said enthusiastic all of a sudden.

"Retrieving… that sounds quite useful, but I would never want to put any of you in danger-"

"Dad, didn't you hear about how we killed that behemoth outside of Galaxy News Radio? If we can take out that thing, admittedly with help, then what else do you think could be a threat to us out here?" Joseph asked raising an eyebrow.

James did not answer for a moment. "All right, because there is something that we will need to get the project up and running." He said in a hushed voice.

"What is it?" Ben and Joseph asked in unison.

"It's called a G.E.C.K."

"A what?"

"A Garden of Eden Creation Kit, I can tell you more about the thing when we're in Megaton, but believe me it is very comforting to know that I will have 'The Wanderer' and 'The Fixer' along for the ride." James said standing up.

And so it was with a self-aware smile that they found sleep.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Elissa padded out her room as as softly as she could, she tried to replicate the moving pattern she had seen joseph use, when he did it he looked as graceful as a cat but Elissa felt clumsy and winced with how loud her every step was, thinking she would somehow activate the Robotic Butler.

She passed through the opening into the small room Ben and Joseph shared, she went through the metal desk and filing cabinet, praying to gods she had never believed in that they wouldn't wake up.

All she managed to find was a just opened packet of cigarettes in the locked draw belonging to Ben, and a small picture of himself and Amata in Josephs, along with a very handsome Pocket Knife that Dad had given him on his tenth birthday, she had always been jealous of it, her own was scrap compared to it.

She took the knife leaving the rest, Joseph could hang, and she didn't think he would be needing out here, baton using fuck.

She left the scrap paper inside Ben's draw in the knife's place, if anyone deserved to be the first to read It then it was him, though she would acknowledge that that was the reason why she chose him.

She crept back out the room, wincing with every creak the metal stairs made as she proceeded down into the man room, she stopped suddenly when she heard a rustling, she focused her hearing, it was coming from the little nook that a kitchen had been stuffed into.

She winced realising who it was, Charon would be in the Megaton Common house, and there is only one other person who could be in the house.

Dad

She guessed that they had found him, she just didn't think he would be awake at 4 AM, she needed to take a few things from the House stores if she wanted to survive on her own, but with him there…

She had to get him out of the way without harming him or waking up the others, Elissa was beginning to realise the skill Joseph actually must posses to be able to deal with a situation like this.

Elissa walked over to the Locker and began to open the squeaky door, she had gotten lucky once hadn't she?

Apparently luck was a fickle thing because as the door squeaked louder then it ever had before.

James turned around and open his mouth she was on him, she managed to subdue him muttering "I'm sorry" the entire time in a shaky voice.

She laid his unconscious form down carefully.

It was at that moment that a large section of meat fell down out of the fridge and landed on James head, it burst in half and let out blood spatter onto both of them.

She sighed softly and lifted the meat back into the fridge, she packed some canned food and purified water into the military style backpack she had acquired from the locker, she took out some ammo and her own weapons from the Locker, her Assault rifle, a 10mm pistol, a large curving knife, she didn't take any more then what rightfully belonged to her as a part of the team, former member.

She took a change of clothes, and some of the heaviest armour In the Locker, Ben wouldn't wear anything that he didn't think looked 'nice' and Joseph wore combat armour underneath the leather duster that he was currently nestled into for warmth, the only use they would have for it would be scrap metal, she would make much better use of it.

"Dad? What are you doing down here?" Joseph asked walking down the stairs, he had the well-tanned leather coat buckled over pyjamas, it was almost cute.

Elissa said nothing, he could feel his eyes on her, sense his eyebrows rise as all the questions went through him.

"Elissa? How are you awake? You opened your eyes but dad said… where that blood from?" He asked and with the last question his voice hardened the way it was when they were on the move, fitting, he was half dressed the wasteland, but not equipped, his eyes travelled to James, face up, just enough blood to give the impression that-

"What the hell did you do!" Joseph said, a declaration not a question.

Elissa opened her mouth but words wouldn't come out, but then she realised that this wasn't the end of her plans to leave, this was an opportunity.

"The same thing you will get if you don't get out of my way." She said gripping her knife's handle.

Now it was Josephs turn to be flabbergasted, then he gritted his teeth, and put up his hands in the same fighting style she had seen him use to disarm and kill raiders, he had been practicing with Charon she remembered, all her weapons were strapped in her bag.

This wouldn't be fun, maybe if she grabbed her bag and ran she could escape before he could stop her, she grabbed one of the straps and moved forward.

She was cut off however by Joseph grappling her and sweeping her legs out from underneath her, she hit the ground hard and Joseph was all smooth discipline as he held her down by her arms, even if she was stronger than him she couldn't get out of it.

"Explain what happened." He said through gritted teeth.

"Fuck yourself." She replied gruffly, she managed to get one arm free and hit him in the collar bone, he grunted, pulled her up, and slammed his sister into the long wooden cabinet that covered the wall near the staircase.

She yelped in pain for a moment, before kneeing him in the stomach getting herself free, she kicked at him again.

Having recovered he grabbed her leg near her knee and through it back at her with enough force to spin her around completely.

And a round kick to the back of the head sent her sprawling to the ground.

"Martial arts dickhead." Elissa said, pain was making her stupid and coarse.

"What happened!" Joseph demanded

She tried to stand up and as she did Joseph grabbed her arm, and started pulling backwards to trip her over again.

In one fluid movement she managed to tear the pocket knife out of her pocket, flip out the first blade her fingers found, the shorter medium length one, and spun herself around.

Ignoring the pain screaming from her other arm, she jabbed the blade at Joseph.

He managed to block thinking it was just her fist, instead he found he had a small blade as deep into his arm as it could go.

He let her go and she spun around yanking Joseph's pocket knife out of his arm, and moved her hand to stab at his gut.

A Gunshot ripping through the flesh of her leg put a stop to her attempt, she cried out in pain and looked for where the bullet had come from as she fell down onto her hands and knees.

She found the source, it was Ben, standing there the shaking gun in his hand with a look of absolute panic on his face.

She dropped the knife and reached out her hand for her bag, she managed to grab one of the straps and pulled it towards her when a food slammed her arm back down into the ground hard enough to make her wonder if the bones had survived.

Then the pressure left for a second, he must have been having second thoughts, she yanked her arm out from underneath Joseph's foot and pulled her bag too her.

With all the remaining energy she had remaining she seized herself up and ran for the door, she had to shoulder-charge it open.

As she ran away from the house, a shotgun blast above her head let her know Charon was closing in, the pellets missed her head by mere inches.

She sprinted as fast as she could away from the house, her body was yelling at her to give up, she hobbled up the steep steps that led towards the gate, out of the city, into the Wasteland.

The entire town would be on alert by now, she had to get out.

_**LINE BREAKER TO DEVIDE TEXT**_

Ben stumbled down the stairs, barley able to stand.

"What the hell happened?" he asked staggering, trying to walk, trying to help Joseph get the knife out of his arm, trying not to look at dad.

"Elissa she… I think she…" Joseph began.

He was interrupted b Charon stepping through the door.

"Your sisters running away, she has given your brother harm, do you wish me to peruse her?" Charon reported.

"No." Joseph said ripping the knife out of his arm, the blood only getting through the duster only in tiny little drops, he took his Magnum out of one of the dusters many pockets, "I'm going to go fetch her." Ben said grabbing a baton that Elissa had left on the floor, a weapon now in each of his hands he set out the door, the baton hand shaking in pain.

Her trail was easy to follow, the bullet wound had left her trailing blood out the gate, she had ran north away from Megaton, Joseph ran after her, she had a head start but she would be limping, he would catch her.

He followed the trail, past the Red rocket where the now broken nuka-cola machine which Elissa had beaten drinks out of almost a month ago, and through the streets of Springvale1, somehow he knew where the trail would lead to, and so it was that he found himself in front of the Shack they had survived in for the first days.

He walked around the back, '_at least Ben will have two blood trails to follow._ Joseph thought.

There was no trail on the other side, Elissa was inside.

He tried the back door, locked, he kicked it, sturdy.

He picked up a small rusted piece of wire and stuck it in the key hole and fidgeted it around inside of the lock.

Then he crept back around the shack quiet as a wraith, he went to the front door and took out a screwdriver from his duster and a box of bobby pins, and entered the house after picking the lock at so softly that a dog would not have been able to hear the noise.

Elissa was where he thought she would be, standing tall despite the leg wound, facing the back door her pistol pointed at the door with steady hands.

Joseph gritted his teeth holstered his Magnum, and rushed forward, with an arm draining blood he struck his sister in the non-wounded leg and pulling her from behind, she went down hard and he hit her again in the stomach, completely winding her, she yelped as it happened.

He looked down at her, her pack was on the other side of the room, he kicked her gun away, she just stared up at him, and he stared back, all the fight had gone out of her.

A second passed, he took out his Magnum, and after a moment he clicked the safety on and off, on, off, on, off.

A few minutes of that passed, though It felt like hours, eventually Elissa's head dropped down.

"Are you going to do it or not?" Elissa asked, she sounded tired, weak.

Joseph sighed. "I'm sorry, I wish it hadn't come to this, North." Joseph said, he clicked the safety off.

When he left, he locked both the doors, he would do that last thing for her.


End file.
